Hittite Journal of Science and Engineering, cilt.9, sa.1, ss.37-44, 2022 (Hakemli Dergi)
As of late 2019, with the rapid and alarming spread of the SARS-Cov-2 (Covid-19) virus
from the coronavirus family, serious measures had to be taken all over the world. The
efforts to prevent this global epidemic have started with the legal measures taken by the
countries in this regard and the warnings of the World Health Organization (WHO) that
the epidemic should be taken seriously. In this process, the success of the use of masks and
the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer in preventing the disease has been evaluated and
approved by scientists. In terms of the effectiveness of hand sanitizers, it is seen that the
main components are ethyl alcohol and isopropyl alcohol, which are alcohol derivatives
and they are considered as active ingredients due to their antibacterial and antiseptic effect
. In this study, 11 commercially purchased hand sanitizer active and additional ingredients
were identified and listed by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (HS/GCMS) and their antibacterial activities were studied. Hand sanitizers containing alcohol
derivatives were used in the study. As a result of this study, it was observed that 4 out of
11 commercial hand sanitizers were not suitable for the final concentration values of hand
sanitizer determined by the World Health Organization (accepted as 80%(v/v) for alcohol
derivatives). Apart from this, hand sanitizers numbered 5 and 9 did not show antibacterial
properties against Escherichia coli and hand sanitizers numbered 1 and 10 did not show antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus. This situation shows that the standards
of hand sanitizers should be controlled with much more stringent rules.