Disinfectants thymol

Thymol is a more powerful disinfectant than phenol, but its low water solubility, its irritancy to tissues, and its inactivation by organic material, such as proteins, limit its use as a disinfectant. Thymol is chiefly used as a deodorant in antiseptic... 

Thymol is used as a dry top note in lavender compositions, in men s fragrances, and as a disinfectant in oral care products. It is also important as a starting material for the production of racemic menthol. 

Phenol Antimicrobial preservative disinfectant (not oral) Camphor, menthol, thymol, acetaminophen, phenacetin, chloral hydrate, phenazone, ethyl aminobenzoate, methenamine, phenyl salicylate, resorcinol, terpin hydrate, sodium phosphate, or other eutectic formers. Phenol also softens cocoa butter in suppository mixtures... 

Ajowan oleoresin prepared from seeds gives a warm, aromatic and pleasing flavour to food products and is used in processed foods, snacks, sauces and various vegetable preparations. Ajowan oil can be treated with aqueous alkaline solution to extract thymol (Pruthi, 2001). Fatty oils produced from ajowan seed have their use in various pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, are used in the soap industry for flavouring and as a deodorant. They are also used for perfuming disinfectant soaps and as an insecticide. A thymol-free fraction of the oil, known as thymene , finds application in soap perfumes (Malhotra and Vijay, 2004). 

Phenolic compounds such as cresol, chloro-cresol, chloroxylenol and thymol are frequently solubilised with soap to form clear solutions which are widely used for disinfection. Solution of Chloroxylenol BP, for example, contains 5% w/v chloroxylenol with terpineol in an alcoholic soap solution. 

Most contain carvacrol and thymol in varying amounts. Dried oregano will contain 0.2 to 0.4% of a yellowish volatile oil with thymol and carvacrol in varying amounts. The phenolic content may be 50 to 65%. Carvacrol is found in the oil of oregano, thyme, marjoram, and summer savory. It is practically insoluble in water. It is used as a disinfectant and in organic synthesis. Therapeutically, it is used as an anti-infective and anthelmintic. 

Thymol is an excelleni disinfecting and antiseptic agent, and one of the best of embalming materials possessing the advant e over phenol of having itself a pleasant odor. 

Occurrence In numerous essential oils cymen-2-ol especially in origanum (oregano) oil (Coridothymus capitatus, Lamiaceae) up to 80%, in savory and thyme oil up to 70% cymen-3-ol especially in essential oil of seeds of Orthodon angustifolium (Lamiaceae) up to 72% cymen-8-ol from the frass of the old house borer beetle Hylotrupes bajulus (Cerambycidae). Use Carvacrol as disinfectant and solvent thymol as stabilizer (0.01%) of halothanes and trichloroethene. Mixtures of thymol with methyl IV-methylanthranilate in appropriate ratios have a typical mandarin odor. lit Tetrahedron Lett. 1975, 3585. Helv. Chim. Acta 46, 1480(1963). 

Apparently 4-chloro-thymol is in particular effective against mould producing fungi, but less active against bacteria and insufficient in activity against Pseudo-monades. 4-Chloro-thymol has up to now not gained importance as a preservative or an active ingredient in disinfectants. 

Solutions of cresol with soap were early pharmaceutical examples of solubilized systems. Phenol itself is soluble in water to the extent of 7.7 % (w/v), but it has disadvantages the alternatives, cresol, chlorocresol, chloroxylenol, and thymol, are much less soluble in water, and their use as disinfectants has led to the need for formulation in surfactant solutions. 

Phenols are found in several of the essential oils of plants, which produce the odor or flavor of the plant. Eugenol is found in cloves, vanillin in vanilla bean, isoeugenol in nutmeg, and thymol in thyme and mint. Thymol has a pleasant, minty taste and is used in mouthwashes and by dentists to disinfect a cavity before adding a filling compound. 

---