Prompted by the appearance of SARS-Cov-2 (the coronavirus responsible for the disease COVID-19), here is the first of my recipies for a hand sanitizer that is effective against the virus. One of the 2 widely available offerings of isopropyl alcohol contains 70% alcohol (with the balance being water). This is an effective sanitizer in its own right, but it has 2 drawbacks:
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- It evaporates rapidly, so it can be difficult to spread it to all parts of your hands before it has disappeared.
- It dries out skin, so it’s not very pleasant to use repeatedly.
Both these can be addressed, but that means adding ingredients and this will reduce the proportion of alcohol in the mixture. There’s a useful calculator published on Lab Muffin’s blog that shows how much alcohol you need in your mixture to achieve a particular proportion of alcohol overall.
If a sanitizer is to be effective against the coronavirus, it should have a minimum alcohol content of 60%.
Home-made hand sanitizer
This recipe produces an effective hand sanitizer, but it should be used within a couple of weeks of making. Aloe vera eventually drops out of solution as a small dehydrated clump at the bottom of the bottle. This does not affect the efficacy of the sanitizer.
For a longer shelf-life, I recommend omitting the aloe vera and increasing the quantity of glycerine in the following recipe to 12 ml.
This version has a concentration of 62% isopropyl alcohol.
I include glycerine (glycerol) in my sanitizer as a wetting agent. I also include aloe vera. Both ingredients help spread the liquid over your hands and slow down evaporation. They also help prevent skin drying out, so they make the sanitizer more pleasant to use than just alcohol and water.
The World Health Organization includes hydrogen peroxide. I don’t include it in this recipe because I believe its purpose is deal with possible contaminants in water used to dilute the alcohol. I have the luxury of access to distilled water and uncontaminated ingredients.
The final ingredient I add is peppermint essential oil. It goes some way to masking the smell of raw alcohol and contributes to making the sanitizer a little more pleasant in use. In aromatherapy, peppermint is associated with clarity of thought and a clear head.
Insanitizer #51
So here’s the recipe for Insanitizer #51:
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- 100 ml isopropyl alcohol 70%
- 8 ml aloe vera gel
- 4 ml vegetable glycerine
- 0.5 ml (or 20 drops) peppermint (piperata) essential oil.
Put the ingredients in a bottle and shake to disperse the aloe gel and the essential oil. Let it stand for a while, and then shake it up again.
The mixture is flammable, toxic if ingested, and you should avoid getting it in your eyes.
Be well. Be safe.