A young man, Vitalis Kiplagat, living in Wanye area, Nairobi has rocked the science world by inventing a herbal candle, which fights off mosquitoes and other breeding insects common in residential homes.
The bright mind shared the events leading to this intriguing invention giving credit to a high school clean up event.
"We were in high school burning rubbish that had the leaves of some plant and noticed that the bees hiding in the nearby bushes flew away after they came into contact with smoke from the fire. That is when I got interested in finding out why they flew away," Kiplagat recounted to the K24 reporter who interviewed him.
His tools of work consist of a gas cooker, test tubes,solid wax, beakers, a pestle and motor set and a string to be used in the candle.
The contents of his candle are from the locally available lantana camara and bluegum tree leaves which he grinds in the pestle and mortar. On the other side, he boils wax in a beaker until it liquefies.
"One of these two leaves is anti-microbial meaning it prevents breeding of any insect in the house, if you light this candle in your house, all the insects will flee," Kiplagat explained.
Once he is done with the grinding, he adds a solvent into the ground powder forming a green solution then dips the string into a green solution. The string is then put in the boiling wax solution to harden it.
The carefully crafted herbal solution is then added to the boiling wax and the entire solution poured into small portions in test tubes which already have the pieces of the hardened string cut to fit the size of the test tube.
The test tubes with the green solution of the ground leaves and wax is cooled in water until the entire solution solidifies.
These tubes are finally heated over steady fire to pop out of the candles due to accumulating pressure during the heating.
Kiplagat stated that he makes up to 100 candles per day and sells each at Ksh 50/-.
He is currently working with Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) to improve on his craft and also come up with more by-products from his invention.
Watch the video below courtesy of K24.
