CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF DETTOL PRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION: Reckitt Benckiser is the company that creates the Dettol brand of hygiene products and markets them under the brand name Dettol. It dates back to far before the 1980s when it was first implemented. Antiseptics are antimicrobial compounds that are administered to live tissue or skin to lessen the risk of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction. Antiseptics are also known as anti-putrefactives. In general, antibiotics are distinguished from antiseptics by the latter's ability to be transported through the lymphatic system to destroy bacteria within the body. Disinfectants, on the other hand, kill microorganisms that are found on non-living objects, whereas antiseptics kill bacteria that are found within the body (Chaidez, 2022).

Some antiseptics are bacteriostatic, which means they simply prevent or slow the development of bacteria, whilst others are real germicides and are capable of eradicating microorganisms (bacteriocidal). Antibacterials are a specific category of antiseptics that have been shown to be effective against bacteria. Viricides and antivirals are both names for microbilides that have the ability to kill virus particles (De Boer, 2022).

In order for bacteria to flourish, there has to be a source of food, a particular minimum temperature, moisture, oxygen (if the bacterium is an obligate aerobe), and a specific minimum temperature. Food preservation and the ancient art of embalming the dead are considered to be the first known examples of the systematic use of antiseptics. Both of these processes have included the study and treatment of these ailments.

In early investigations, before there was an understanding of microbes, much emphasis was placed on the prevention of putrefaction, and procedures were carried out to determine the amount of agent that was to be added to a given solution in order to prevent the development of pus and putrefaction; however, due to a lack of a developed understanding of germ theory, this method was inaccurate, and today, an antiseptic is judged by its effect on pure cultures of a defined microbe and its ability to kill that microbe In many situations, standardization of antiseptics has been achieved, and a water solution of phenol of a specified set strength is now employed as the standard to which other antiseptics are compared. This strength serves as the benchmark against which other antiseptics are judged (Devane, 2022).