Being a leader in antimicrobial segment over three decades, Kumar Organic Products Limited cover various ingredients for soap, hand sanitizers and cleaning ingredients to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We have always heard that prevention is better than cure. Since there is no cure, we have to rely on prevention by maintaining healthy social distancing, frequent hand washing, use of sanitizers at regular intervals, boosting immunity, using disinfectant to prevent the surface transmission and by maintaining the personal hygiene.

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are just one of the few products employed by healthcare professionals to maintain clean and hygienic hands. However, these products have some limitations, such as drying hands and being hazardous to handle in large quantities. In addition, alcohol-based hand sanitizers may have limited use in facilities such as rehabilitation, school, and penal institutions. An alternative ingredient to alcohol is benzethonium chloride (BC). The antimicrobial efficacy of a benzethonium chloride hand sanitizer formulation was evaluated by in vitro and in vivo studies.

A typical quaternary ammonium compound, Benzethonium chloride is used as topical antimicrobial agent and preservative. This compound exhibits broad spectrum of microbial activity against bacteria, fungi and viruses. It has surfactant, antiseptic and anti-infective properties and it is used as a topical antimicrobial agent used to destroy or inhibit the growth of disease-causing mechanisms.

Highly water soluble, white in color and essentially odorless and very effective in low concentration. Can be used in a wide range of product formulations, for example

1. Active Ingredient Preservative

2. Mouth washes

3. Personal Care Hand Soaps and Hair Care

4. Hand Washes and Skin Care

5. Surgical Scrubs and Baby Products

6. Feminine Hygiene wipes

7. First Aid and Drug Products Raw Material

8. Hard surface disinfectant

Efficacy

Benzethonium chloride, is highly effective with short contact time against a large number of typical gram - positive and gram - negative bacteria. . In vivo studies demonstrated that both the BC and an alcohol-based sanitizer were equally effective in reducing the bacterial populations of Escherichia coli by a log10 value of 1.70 and 2.07 respectively, after the first application. After the fifth application, the log10 reduction values were 2.75 and 2.50

The data indicated that the BC formulation was equally effective in reducing the number of microbial counts in contaminated hands as the proven alcohol sanitizer in a human clinical trial. Furthermore, chlorine equivalency analysis and MIC and time-kill studies demonstrated a consistent, broad-spectrum, and rapid antimicrobial activity. The study demonstrates the suitability of the formulation for use as a hand sanitizer.

References:

1. Household Products Database, September 2016, archived from the original on 2017- 01-04

2. American Journal of Infection Control, Volume 33, Issue 5 Pages 041-042