ALCOHOL GEL FOR ASEPSY OF THE HANDS – PROPER FORMULATION AND GUARANTEED EFFICIENCY AMID THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19

Abstract

The use of hand antiseptics became widespread as a routine in the fight against COVID-19. In the market, the availability and purchase of substandard antiseptics create a permanent concern with safety, even after a pandemic. Therefore, the development of easy-to-deploy analytical methods for the quality control of alcohol-based hand antiseptics is needed. In this work, to determine the ethanol content in alcohol gel the use of refractometry and alcohol oxidation method by dichromate accompanied by UV-Vis spectroscopy were applied. The results indicated that 19 brands (out of the 70 evaluated) (27.1%) had levels of ethyl alcohol below the recommended level (68.25%), therefore, they are ineffective for hand asepsis. For the quality control of hand antiseptics, refractometry and the oxidation-reduction reaction are complementary analytical methodologies. As a quick, inexpensive screening method, refractometry provides a more suitable technique. However, the interference of emollients may affect the accuracy of the ethanol content determination. Therefore, applying the ethanol oxidation method coupled with electronic spectroscopy offers a simple and broadly accessible method to confirm the ethanol content in alcohol-based hand antiseptics. In addition to developing quality control protocols, is also described the 3.5-ton production of alcohol gel at the Federal University of Bahia.