Herself’s Houston Garden

Last year, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Oxford, Miss., isolated compounds from a plant

called American beautyberry that enable its crushed leaves to repel mosquitoes.

This work, led by chemist Charles Cantrell at the ARS Natural Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, was inspired by a tip another ARS scientist—botanist Charles Bryson in Stoneville, Miss.—got long ago from his grandfather: that beautyberry was used in northeastern Mississippi to protect people and farm-work animals from biting bugs.

Now ARS scientists in Beltsville, Md., have shown that two beautyberry compounds—callicarpenal and intermedeol—may effectively repel blacklegged ticks as well. [ read more USDA Research, Beautyberry ]

See also
American Beautyberry