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ethyl alcohol

BryanM

Active member
Is ethyl alcohol sufficient to kill bacteria in replacement of ba/bb

I noticed hm gear uses it instead of ba/bb
 
SonOfThor said:
Care to elaborate Dr. D?
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Ethanol is more toxic locally and requires a higher concentration to kill the same amount of bacteria in a specific amount of time compared to BA. Also BB metabolizes into benzoic acid and benzyl alcohol, both anti-infective, so it's a good anti-bacterial in that it offers buffered activity. Slow hydrolysis saponifies the ester to yield the two actives.
 
I´ve senn a data on AR that 0.9% of BA kills 100% of all germs and spores,while others at much higher dose had impaired anti-biotic effects on different cultures.
 
Fastflight said:
I´ve senn a data on AR that 0.9% of BA kills 100% of all germs and spores,while others at much higher dose had impaired anti-biotic effects on different cultures.
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BA kills about 99% at that concentration :)

Not to be splitting hairs, but the antibacterial value of straight chain alcohols increases with molecular weight until about 8 carbons, then the water solubility decreases and activity starts to fall again. The isomeric alcohols show a drop in activity from primary to secondary to tertiary. Thus IPA is slightly more effective than EtOH. Atiseptics like this are only bacteriostatic. They are great in the vegatative stage but not so great in the spore phase. That's why "preservatives" are used like chlorbutanol, BA and BB. The chemical properties of BA are much the same as primary alcohols, since it's really just phenylmethanol.

Don't get me wrong EtOH can be used internally at up to 10% concentrations by IV or IM administration, but 5% or less is much less irritating.
 
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