Fig 1.
MS chromatogram profiles of Bombshell® (upper trace in blue) and Ivanka Trump (lower trace in red) eaux de parfums. The peaks for the four major constituents of Bombshell are labelled. Three of them are the major constituents in the Ivanka Trump eau de parfum.
Fig 2.
Behavioral responses of blood-seeking female Culex mosquitoes to the major constituents of Bombshell in a surface landing and feeding assay.
(A) Methyl dihydrojasmonate (MDJ), (B) lilial, (C) isopropyl myristate (IM), (D) galaxolide and lyral–the latter was found in Ivanka Trump eau de parfum. All compounds were tested at 1% dose, and DEET at the same dose was used as a positive control. Data were normalized and expressed as mean ± SEM. Asterisks and “ns” indicate significant (Student t test, P < 0.05) and not significant differences, respectively. The number of replicates were (A), DEET, n = 12; MDJ, n = 11; (B) DEET, n = 8; lilial, n = 10; (C), DEET and IM, n = 4; (D) galaxolide and lyral (n = 6).
Fig 3.
Repellence activity elicited by mixtures of methyl dihydrojasmonate and lilial at (A) 1% and (B) 5% compared with responses to DEET at the same concentration. Data were normalized and expressed as mean ± SEM. Asterisks denote significant differences of transformed data (Student t test, P < 0.05). The number of replicates were (A) mixture, n = 13; DEET, n = 12; (B) mixture and DEET, n = 6.
Fig 4.
Responses elicited by MDJ and lilial on Xenopus oocytes expressing CquiOR136/CquiOrco.
(A) Quantification of currents and (B) Representative traces obtained with the same oocyte. DEET was applied as a positive control. All compounds were tested at the same dose (1 mM). The data are expressed as mean ± SEM.
Fig 5.
Concentrations of MDJ and lilial in Bombshell (left, blue) and Ivanka Trump (right, red) eaux de parfums. Amounts were estimated by gas chromatography after calibrating the responses of the flame ionization detector with standards. Perfumes were diluted 1,000x for injections (n = 3). The data are expressed as mean ± SEM.
Fig 6.
Repellence activity elicited by Bombshell and Ivanka Trump eaux de parfums over a period of six hours.
DEET at 5% in our experimental setup, which is equivalent to a commercial formulation of 30% [13], was used as positive control. The perfumes were undiluted in these tests. Data are expressed in protection (%), representing the mean ± SEM of 6 replicates each.