Investigating the Effectiveness of Different DIY Hand Sanitizers in the Age of COVID
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2020-11
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University of Hawaiʻi — West Oʻahu
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When the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic there was a shortage in hygiene products, like hand sanitizer. The high demand for hand sanitizer inspired people to create "Do It Yourself" or DIY hand sanitizers. This study investigates the effectiveness of two DIY hand sanitizers, one with aloe vera gel and 70% alcohhol, and another with lavender essential oil, tea tree essential oil, vitamin E oil, witch hazel extract and aloe vera gel, against a gram positive (Staphylococcus epidermidis) and gram negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria. We hypothesized that the natural hand sanitizer would be less effective than the DIY hand santitizer, and the chemical hand sanitizer would be effective as the alcohol. We plated the bacteria on Lysogeny Broth (LB) plates, divided sections for each treatment, saturated filter paper with each treatment and placed the discs on the correct section. The plates were placed in the incubator at 37℃ for 24 hours, then taken out to measure the zone of inhibition of each treatment. We found that all but one treatment lacked a zone of inhibiton. The tea tree oil treatment showed antimicrobial propeties against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus epidermidis. The results could have been caused by human error or the DIY hand sanitizers are simply ineffective against the two bacteria. For future experiements, different DIY hand sanitizers should be used.
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A student presentation to the Fall 2020 Student Research and Creative Works Symposium
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1 page
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
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