ARTHROPOD REPELLENTS OBTAINED BY CHEMICALLY CONVERTING LACTIC ACID, LACTATES OR OTHER LACTIC ACID DERIVATIVES

摘要

The present invention pertains to the fields of green chemistry and human health and, more specifically, describes the production of highly efficient arthropod repellents by chemically converting a substance used by mosquitos as an attractant, lactic acid, and also lactates, in this case (S)-ethyl lactate. Lactic acid is usually present in the sweat and body odour of all warm-blooded animals and is an essential attractant for A. aegypti females. The present invention is based on the principle of modifying the structure of said substance, which is already known to interact with mosquitoes' receptors and acts as an attractant. To this end, the hydroxyl functional group of lactic acid must be converted into an ester and the carboxylic acid functional group into an amide, since esters and amides are functional groups already present in other repellents, such as in the structure of DEET, of IR 3535 and of dimethyl phthalate. In the case of lactates, in this case (S)-ethyl lactate, the ester must undergo a reaction in which the acyl functional group is substituted with an amine of interest and the hydroxyl functional group must be acylated. All of the steps used for synthesizing molecules that have a repellent effect, both from lactic acid and from lactates, are widely described in the literature. In other words, by using a structure that is already known to interact with mosquitoes' receptors and modifying same by converting its chemical functional groups into other functional groups already present in other repellents, it is possible to convert the structure of an attractant, or a derivative thereof, into a highly efficient repellent.