Synopsis

Source of validity: Traditional
Rating (out of 5): 1

Black spruce (Picea mariana) has traditionally been used by Indigenous peoples of North America for a variety of medicinal purposes, including as a natural insect repellent. Ethnobotanical records indicate that preparations from black spruce needles and resin were sometimes applied to skin or burned to ward off biting insects such as mosquitoes and black flies. However, there is very limited documentation of this use, and it does not appear as a prominent or widespread traditional remedy compared to other plants like sweetgrass or cedar. Furthermore, scientific studies specifically investigating black spruce essential oil or extracts as effective insect repellents are lacking. While black spruce contains some volatile compounds (such as α-pinene and camphene) that are present in other plant-based repellents, there is no robust scientific validation of its efficacy for this purpose. Thus, while there is some traditional precedent for its use as an insect repellent, the supporting evidence is minimal, and black spruce has not been rigorously evaluated or recommended as a primary botanical for this condition.

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