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Make Your Own Hand Sanitiser

Several Recipes

By Ian McKenziePublished 4 years ago 10 min read
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Popular Opinion – Buy it. It’s cheap.

Why bother spending many hours researching the active ingredients in a product and the ways in which it may be manufactured when it is normally readily available and relatively inexpensive to purchase?

The key word in the sentence above is “normally”.

Unless you have been a hermit living without any other human interaction or access to modern communication devices and facilities, you will be well aware that globally things are not currently anywhere near normal.

There is a virus which has been named Covid 19, which has rapidly spread world wide, infecting hundreds of thousands and killing thousands. At the time of writing this, March 15, 161,982 people have been infected and there have been 5,973 deaths from the virus. These statistics are going to increase substantially before we see a lowering of these numbers.

People are panicking and stockpiling food and other basics such as toilet paper. In many places some supermarket shelves are bare. One product for which there has been a very high demand is hand sanitiser. Some opportunists, and I am being kind calling them opportunists, have purchased supplies in bulk when there were available, and are now selling the product at exorbitant prices on online sale sites.

Now we know that hand sanitiser is not as effective at cleaning hands as good old soap and water. Health professionals advise us that we should spend at least twenty seconds to thoroughly wash our hands. But, there are times when running water is not available for us, and we still need to rid our hands of those nasties. That is the time for a hand sanitiser.

An extensive internet search reveals dozens of web sites offering advice on formulation of various hand sanitisers. Several have essentially the same three ingredients and the proportions of each to use. But, there are other choices as well. Below I will list several that I think are practical and relatively easy to make. The World Health Organisation has even published the ingredients and method for making hand sanitiser commercially in a nine page PDF document.

The active ingredient in most commercial hand sanitisers is ethyl alcohol and/or isopropyl alcohol. The concentration of the alcohol needs to be in the range of 60 – 95% for the formulation to be effective. Many of the suggested home made formula were below this level of concentration of alcohol, so may not be effective. However there are other products that we know can kill bacteria and viruses.

The first recipe listed below is the one you will find most commonly in an internet search.

The Recipe

2 parts rubbing alcohol

1 part aloe vera gel

a few drops of essential oil

If the measuring device you are using is a cup for example, you would require two thirds of a cup of rubbing alcohol, one third of a cup of aloe vera gel and about ten drops of essential oil.

You may well ask, what is this stuff called “rubbing alcohol”? I did not know myself until a few days ago.

“Rubbing alcohol” is the common name for a solution made from a product known as isopropyl alcohol, or isopropanol. It is about 70% isopropanol with the remaining 30% being distilled water and other chemicals.

Isopropyl alcohol has several uses. One is as a high quality cleaning liquid especially for electronics. Its high evaporation rate will help protect delicate parts. It is also the main active ingredient in many commercial hand sanitisers. If it is available, it would be better to use pure isopropanol instead of rubbing alcohol in the above recipe, as it will give a stronger concentration of the main active ingredient.

Ethyl alcohol if available can be used instead of the isopropyl alcohol.

Method

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly before using a funnel to pour the solution into small pump containers. Shake well each time before use.

The ingredients in the second recipe are.

10 drops of essential oil

10 drops of witch hazel

5 drops of vitamin E oil

1 teaspoon of aloe vera gel

5 oz distilled water

Method

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together and pour into pump bottle or other container.

Which essential oils to use were not specified. However my understanding is that tea tree oil is one of the best choices for its germicidal and anti virus properties.

Witch hazel is an emulsifier which will help the oils and water mix together.

Vitamin E oil acts as a preservative. The aloe vera gel will help thicken the solution and is soothing on the skin.

There are several variations of recipes which seem to rely mainly on essential oils. The ingredients in recipe 3 are.

Ingredients.

1 tablespoon witch hazel

8 ozs aloe vera gel

¼ teaspoon vitamin E oil

10 drops tea tree oil

5 drops lavender oil

Method

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together and pour into pump pack or other suitable container.

There are many recipes containing white vinegar. White vinegar is readily available and inexpensive to purchase. Today it is mainly manufactured through further fermenting ethyl alcohol. It contains between about 4% and 7% acetic acid, the remainder being water.

White vinegar has been used in households for thousands of years, and is prised for its cleaning, cooking and medicinal applications. Vinegar destroys pathogens, including the flu virus. It does this by chemically changing the proteins and fats that are a part of these nasties.

Here is the first recipe using vinegar. Let’s call it recipe four.

Ingredients

white vinegar

Method

Pour vinegar into a spray bottle.

Use

Thoroughly spray hands including your palms with the vinegar. Rub your hand together and allow to air dry.

This spray bottle of vinegar will also come in handy for cleaning numerous other surfaces in your home.

Lemons, in addition to being a food are also are great for cleaning. There are several recipes using vinegar and lemon juice together. Here is recipe 5.

Ingredients

Equal parts of

white vinegar

lemon juice

Mix together and pour into a spray bottle.

Use

Use as in the previous recipe.

Recipe 6

This is a variation of recipe number five.

Ingredients

peel of six to eight lemons (avoid using the pith)

500ml white vinegar

Method

Place ingredients in a sealed jar to let stand for a few days. The citrus smell is refreshing and invigorating. Pour into spray bottles and use as in the previous two recipes.

Just a thought, why not use both the lemon juice and the lemon peel in your formulation.

Hydrogen peroxide is the world’s safest all natural effective sanitiser. It is well known for its bleaching qualities and is found in some toothpastes to help whiten teeth. It is essentially water (H2O) with an extra oxygen molecule (H2O2).

There are two suggestions for using hydrogen peroxide as a hand sanitiser. The first is to pour a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide into a spray bottle and to spray your hands thoroughly, rub them together and let them dry naturally.

The second suggestion is to have a container holding a 1% to 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide into which you can place your hands. The sanitising will be more effective if your hands are kept in the solution for a few minutes. After taking your hands out of the solution, rub them together and let them air dry.

Being more gentle on the skin than most other products, hydrogen peroxide is readily available and is inexpensive. Its uses as a hand sanitiser are worth exploring further.

I would like to discuss a few issues and other thoughts I have regarding some of these recipes and a few alternatives that could be worth trying.

Starting with recipe 1

Where I live there is a tremendous fluctuation in price and availability for “rubbing alcohol”. Various brands and small sized containers are more expensive than larger quantities of pure isopropyl alcohol. Currently I have a one litre container of isopropanol on back order which is costing me less than a 250ml container of rubbing alcohol from another supplier. It is important to shop around.

Concentrated ethyl alcohol is not available in the part of the world where I live, or if it is, I am unable to find any. I have seen some people suggest online to use vodka instead of the isopropanol. Vodka at 80 proof has only 40% alcohol. That is a high concentration for drinking, but not high enough to use it as a hand sanitiser. So, enjoy your vodka as a drink.

Methylated spirits or denatured spirits has a concentration of 95% ethyl alcohol and is inexpensive to purchase. That concentration is certainly higher than needed for a hand sanitiser. But, do not use it! The remaining 5% contains methyl alcohol, or wood alcohol, and other chemicals such as pyridine which give the product its pungent odour.

Small amounts of methyl alcohol ingested can cause blindness and brain damage. Larger quantities can result in death. Some of the substance can be absorbed through the skin. The Material Safety Data Sheet for methylated spirits suggests washing with soap and water if it gets onto the skin.

Several of the recipes have aloe vera gel as one of the ingredients. There is no problem obtaining it where I live. Last week I purchased a one kilogram tub of it. The healing properties of juice and gel from the aloe vera plant have been known for thousands of years. The product has been taken both internally and externally. It is very effective used on burns.

Its use in formulations for hand sanitiser seems to be primarily as a gentle hand moisturiser and also as a thickener for the solution to be used in a pump bottle. It is certainly more healthful than thickening compounds, such as carbomer 940, used in some commercial preparations.

However, I do not see any reason why products such as glycerine or coconut oil could not be substituted for it, if the aloe vera gel was not readily available.

I would personally question the effectiveness of some preparations using just essential oils, or oils with added distilled water. Some essential oils such as tea tree, and eucalyptus, have germicidal and anti-bacterial properties I am not a chemist, so I can not speak with any authority on this matter, but, for me anyway, I will not be relying on them to protect me from Covid 19.

Vinegar, lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide are all readily available and are inexpensive, and I believe worth exploring further.

Disclaimer

The information given above is the result of personal research I have undertaken. Hopefully it will save you, the reader, time and the need to do similar research. I am not a medical practitioner, nor am I a doctor, and I am unable to vouch for the effectiveness of any of the treatments I have given. Any preparations you formulate you do so at your own risks. Good luck and try to stay safe.

Remember to keep good health habits and when you are able to, thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water for at least twenty seconds.

Video

In an early part of this video I mentioned the panic buying and stockpiling of essentials that is happening all over the world. Recently I have produced and published a short video on this issue which I have called “Dunny Disaster”. I hope you enjoy it.

Do you get frustrated as I when doing internet research. Often very limited content is smothered by advertising material urging you to click on products, and then there are those annoying pop-up advertisements which jump up at you when you enter or are about to leave a site. I hope you appreciate reading an article without any of those.

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About the Creator

Ian McKenzie

Lover of life and all it has to offer. Retired from full-time employment, but keeping busy with things I am passionate about including: family, friends, photography, writing, sustainability and keeping Australian native stingless bees.

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