The origin of mosquito-repellent incense. In ancient times, mosquitoes were a kind of "blood-sucking insect" that our people hated very much. People have been disgusted with this insect for a long time. Ouyang Xiu, a famous scholar in the Song Dynasty, said in his poem "Hating Mosquitoes": "Although they are small and helpless, they are difficult to prevent poisoning." It makes people lament that "the bitter smoke smokes them, and the candles burn the wall tiredly", which highlights people's hatred. This concept. Mosquito repellent incense has a long history and was the earliest insecticide used. As early as thousands of years ago in the Southern Song Dynasty, similar mosquito repellent sticks made from traditional Chinese medicine appeared. In order to prevent the harm of mosquitoes, people gradually invented mosquito nets and mosquito coils. The invention of mosquito-repellent incense may be related to the hygiene customs of the ancients during the Dragon Boat Festival and the customs of burning incense and offering sacrifices. "Records of the Years of Jingchu" records: "During the Dragon Boat Festival, four people stepped on the grass and gathered mugwort to make people. When they were hung on their doors, they were filled with poisonous gas." In the early years of the Dragon Boat Festival, in addition to planting mugwort at the door, people often soaked realgar wine and applied it on their bodies. Doing so may freshen the air, and also prevent mosquito bites. I remember when I was young, when my mother poured realgar wine on my forehead during the Dragon Boat Festival, she said it would prevent mosquito bites. Of course, most parents will also hang a sachet for their children and eat some garlic to enhance the effect of disease prevention and insect repellent. In addition, the invention of mosquito-repellent incense may also be related to the ancient custom of burning incense for sacrifice. As we all know, our country has long started the custom of burning incense and offering sacrifices. The earliest record of this custom is "Poetry·Zhou Song·Weiqing": "Weiqing Jixi, the canon of King Wen, Zhaohui." This means that Zhou people burned some firewood and smoked to worship the sky, which is called "Qi" Or "Happy Sacrifice". Later, "Zhou Li·Chun Guan·Da Zongbo" recorded that the duties of Da Zongbo include: "Serve to God Haotian with 禋, worship the sun, moon and stars with solid firewood, worship Sizhong, Siming, Fengshi, Yu with firewood." "Teacher." Note: "禋之言 Smoke". Of course, what was burned at that time was not the later incense, but some firewood and cloth. "Zhou Li Tianguan" has a saying that "sacrifice is to kill Xiao Mao". Xiao here is a kind of vanilla. Real burning of incense began around the Han Dynasty, because incense burners appeared in the Han Dynasty. In addition, historical records record that in the Han Dynasty, there were records of burning "Moon Zhi Incense" to "avoid epidemics". It shows that burning incense has evolved from "communicating with gods" to "avoiding epidemics". As the material of incense changes, its functions are also expanding. Therefore, it seems reasonable to develop "mosquito incense" for the purpose of "repelling mosquitoes" on this basis. The specific time when mosquito coils appeared is still unclear. From the above-mentioned poem by Ouyang Xiu, we can see that people have used smoke to repel mosquitoes. However, Ouyang Xiu's poem does not mention what kind of material is used to produce smoke. The original mosquito-repellent incense appeared in the Song Dynasty. According to the "Rough Talk on Things" written by Su Shi in the Song Dynasty: "During the Dragon Boat Festival, collect and store duckweed, dry it in the shade, add realgar, make paper and wrap it around incense, and burn it to get rid of mosquitoes." This should be the earlier "mosquito incense" ". The materials mentioned are very interesting. Realgar is an arsenic sulfide ore, which was also a widely used insecticide in ancient times. The book also mentions that mosquito-repellent incense is made from materials during the Dragon Boat Festival, which makes people think that "mosquito-repellent incense" is somehow related to the planting of mugwort and the use of realgar wine during this festival. The mosquito-repellent incense of the Song Dynasty was further perfected in the Jiangnan region of the Qing Dynasty. There is a relevant record in the book "A Residence among the Chinese" by Robert Fortune, an Englishman who came to China to collect tea seeds in modern times. In 1849, this British horticultural scholar was on his way from western Zhejiang to Wuyi Mountain in Fujian. Due to the hot and humid climate, he and his entourage were bitten by mosquitoes and could not sleep a wink all night. Later, his entourage purchased a mosquito-repellent incense used by some locals, which was very effective in repelling mosquitoes. Later, when he brought this information back to Europe, it aroused great interest among Western entomologists and chemists, who all asked him what kind of substance this mosquito coil was synthesized from. Later, he learned about the formula of the mosquito-repellent incense in Dinghai, Zhejiang, and found that the mosquito-repellent incense was composed of rosin powder, mugwort powder, tobacco leaf powder, a small amount of arsenic and sulfur. The book "Tan Zi Diao Chong" written in the late Ming Dynasty records: "The mosquito-related evil smoke and old clouds will collapse if smoked with moxa. However, moxa is not easy to come by, so the custom is to use eel, eel, turtle and other bones as medicine, wrapped in paper for three or four months. The ruler was actually smoked in the evening." The above records show that the ancients indeed used moxa hung outdoors during the Dragon Boat Festival as a material to fumigate mosquitoes. Of course, the production of this "mosquito-repellent incense" may be related to the inspiration from the use of moxa in acupuncture in terms of preparation technology. According to the Song Dynasty's "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Dry moxa leaves are pounded and sieved to remove the green residue to obtain white, and sulfur is added to the stone to obtain sulfur moxa." It is probably based on this "sulfur mugwort" production process that reminds people of adding dried duckweed powder and realgar powder to make a practical "mosquito incense".

Although mosquito coils already existed in ancient China, it was regrettable that it was foreigners who first carried out technological innovation and industrialized commodity production. In modern times, in 1885, the Ueyama family in Arita City, Wakayama Prefecture, known as the "Orange King" (Wakayama is rich in oranges), Ueyama Eiichiro (24 years old at the time) who graduated from Keio University, established the Ueyama Store, hoping to export the oranges produced at home. Go abroad. Eiichiro Ueyama got acquainted with the owner of a plant company in the United States through the introduction of his mentor Yukichi Fukuzawa (the Enlightenment thinker in the Meiji era and the founder of Keio University). Shangshan warmly entertained the boss and gave him oranges, bamboo and other seedlings as gifts when he returned home. The next year, the boss sent a box of plant seeds. The letter stated that many Americans had become rich because of the production of this plant. The seeds were pyrethrum native to Yugoslavia. The boss of the American Plant Company also explained in the letter that this plant can also be cultivated in wasteland. Eiichiro Ueyama then thought that if pyrethrum was spread to farmers across the country to protect crops, and then exported to foreign countries, it might be possible to save some poor farmers who were often infested by mosquito coils. So, I went up the mountain and started traveling around the country. Unfortunately, most farmers were not interested. Eiichiro Ueyama also thought that if pyrethrum was made into ash and sprinkled on crops, farmers might be able to accept it. However, the results of repeated experiments forced Shangshan to give up. In 1888, Eiichiro Ueyama invited incense-making craftsmen and spent two years developing the world's first stick-shaped mosquito repellent incense. However, this mosquito-repellent incense, which looks like a thread incense, can only last for an hour at most. If it is lengthened, it is easy to break. My wife who went up the mountain suggested changing it to a whirlpool shape. After repeated experiments, he went up the mountain to figure out a manufacturing method of using a round rod as the center and rolling two thick mosquito-repellent coils into a swirl shape. This hand-rolled manufacturing method lasted until around 1955, when it was fully mechanized. Although the shape problem has been solved, there is still a drying problem waiting. Because if the rolled mosquito coils are placed on a wooden board to dry, the two mosquito coils will stick together and cannot be divided into two swirl-shaped mosquito coils; if they are hung up to dry, the mosquito coils will lose their original shape. Fortunately, my wife's suggestion worked this time, and the drying process was carried out on a wire mesh instead. This approach continues to this day. In 1902, the swirl-shaped mosquito coils that lasted for more than seven hours were finally officially launched. In 1910, Eiichiro Ueyama designed the trademark as a rooster head and named it "Golden Bird Mosquito Repellent". In 1954, after Shangshan added allethrin, which was more effective than pyrethrum, into mosquito coils, pyrethrum became just an add-on to add fragrance. Among the ingredients of current mosquito coils, 0.3% to 0.6% are allethrin, and the rest are sawdust powder, starch, and nan tree powder. The smoke when burning mosquito coils actually has no insecticidal effect. The effective ingredients are evaporated from the small section before the burning part.