Essential oils have been widely used in traditional medicine for the eradication of lice,
including head lice, but due to the variability of their constitution the effects may not be
reproducible. In an attempt to assess the contribution of their component monoterpenoids, a
range of common individual compounds were tested in in vitro toxicity model against both
human lice (Pediculus humanus, an accepted model of head lice lethality) and their eggs, at
different concentrations. No detailed study into the relative potencies of their constituent …