Cure head lice with custard apple, neem

By Sade Oguntola

Much to many parents’ annoyance, the head louse is a tiny, wingless parasitic insect that lives among human hairs and feeds on extremely small amounts of blood drawn from the scalp. Although they may sound unpleasant, lice are a very common problem, especially for kids, be it girls or boys.

Lice are not dangerous and they do not spread disease, but they are contagious.

Aside this, their bites may cause the child’s scalp to become itchy and inflamed and persistent scratching may lead to skin irritation and even infection.

Though very small, lice can be seen by the naked eye. What you or your child’s doctor might see by thoroughly examining your child’s head may be its eggs called nits, which look like tiny yellow, tan, or brown dots before they hatch. Most times, lice and nits may be found on the scalp, behind the ears, and around the nape of the neck, (it’s rare for them to be found on eyelashes or eyebrows.

Lice lay nits on hair shafts close to the skin’s surface, where the temperature is perfect for keeping them warm until they hatch. Nits look sort of like dandruff, only they cannot be removed by brushing or shaking them off. Unless the infestation is heavy, it is more common to see nits in a child’s hair than it is to see live lice crawling on the scalp. Lice eggs hatch within one to two weeks after they are laid.

With lice, bites come itching and scratching. However, the itching may not always start right away - that depends on how sensitive the individual’s skin is to the lice.

It can sometimes take weeks for the lice to start scratching.
For some kids, the irritation is mild. For others, a more bothersome rash might be seen due to the excessive scratching. Excessive scratching can also lead to a bacterial infection.

Lice are highly contagious and can spread quickly from person to person, especially in group settings such as in schools or during sports activities.

However, they cannot fly or jump, but have specially adapted claws that allow them to crawl and cling firmly to hair. They spread mainly through head-to-head contact, but sharing clothing, bed linens, combs, brushes, and hats can also help pass them along.

Though doctors do recommend a medicated shampoo, cream, or lotion to kill the lice, these over-the-counter or prescription medications, depending on what treatments already been tried, sometimes do not work. It is possible for treatments to be unsuccessful because of incorrect use or because the lice may be resistant to the chemical in the shampoo.

However, the Asian traditional treatment suggests the use of custard apple for head lice. It has easy application at home. People only use the fruits of custard apple. This is pounded to a fine texture and some water is then added. It is then applied to the hair wrapped with warm towel and left on for 15 to 20 minutes.

Then rinse out with cool water.
Custard apple has different names in West African countries, for instance its wild form in Nigeria is called gwandar daaji , some in Yoruba speaking area of Ilorin call it arere and Igbos call it uburu-ocha.

The root of this plant in Hausa markets in Northern Nigeria are used in the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, by the patient feeding for five or six days on a pap made by boiling the root with guinea-corn meal and native nantron.
Scientific reports also support the use of custard apple for the treatment of head lice. W Gritsanapan, J Intaranongpai and W Chavasiri from Mahidol University and Chulalongkorn University have done the study on this subject with title Active anti-head lice component from custard apple seed.

Seeds of custard apple (Annona squamosa Linn., Annonaceae) have been used for anti-head lice for a long time. In Thailand, the petroleum ether seed extract prepared as a cream preparation was reported to kill 93 per cent of head lice within three hours. Twenty grammes of the 20% w/w freshly prepared cream can kill 94.5 per cent of head lice within three hours when applied to schoolchildren and the cream is biologically stable for at least 12 months.

The efficacy of this remedy for lice was attributed to its chemically active anti-head lice component, a triglyceride with one oleate ester (with two unknown acyl moieties).

Similarly, in Egypt, the use of neem seed extract shampoo was helpful too. This is called Dongoyaro in many West African countries, including Nigeria. Sixty heavily lice-infested male and female children between atges four and 15 were involved in the trial, which had between 20 and 30 millilitre of the shampoo applied to a completely wet hair and rubbed in to reach the skin of the scalp. The neem seed extract shampoo proved highly effective against all stages of head lice in the study published in January edition of the journal, Parasitological Research.

Among the many home remedies tried out to check the efficacy in lice control were vinegar, isopropyl alcohol, olive oil, mayonnaise, melted butter, and petroleum jelly as wel as the likelihood of drowning lice by water submersion. Results published in 2004 December edition of he Journal of Paediatrics Nursing indicated that only the application of petroleum jelly caused significant death of the louse.

Though it was unable to prevent lice from laying eggs, however allowed 6 per cent to hatch. These home remedy products did little to kill eggs, despite prolonged exposure.

In addition, keep in mind that head lice do not survive long once they fall off a person. Therefore, it is unnecessary to spend a great deal of time and money trying to rid the house of lice.