This is my effort to understand details on the everyday chemical compounds we use in the form of medicine - and how they affect our bodies.
Information for Knowledge Purpose Only
This writeup is my personal curiosity driven exploration and solely meant for knowledge. The information in this page should not be used in any form of treatments or for decision making.
Chlorhexidine Gluconate (CHG)
Category: broad spectrum antiseptic and disinfectant
Use Cases: Oral Health, On Skin during Surgery, Disinfect skin wounds and burns, Maintain medical devices from microbial growth
Components that combine to from Oral Gels: Metronidazole Benzoate (antibiotic) and Lignocaine Hydrochloride (local anesthetic)
Antiseptic vs Antibiotic
Antiseptics have wide range of targets which includes viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. While Antibiotics specific target bacteria.
Antiseptics have a non selective mechanism meaning they disrupt the target cell walls or any vital life elements. While Antibiotics can be purposed to target specific bacterial processes.
Antiseptics are toxic to be taken internally - hence are mainly topical only.
Working Mechanism of CHG
- Electrostatic Attraction: CHG is positively charged and is attracted to negatively charged bacteria and fungi.
- Membrane Disruption: Either makes the cell wall permeable leading to leakage of cell materials or coagulates the cytoplasm inside the cell.
- Persistence: Remains active for a long period of time and hence preferred widely.
Everyday antiseptics like Savlon has CHG while Dettol has a different antiseptic called chloroxylenol.
What makes CHG cationic?
Its a strong base compared to solutions on environments it is used in ( of human body is ). The dissociation constant () is allowing it to gain Hydrogen ions ().
CHG structure is symmetrical with a chain in middle and two biguanide groups at either end. Each of this group accepts a proton giving the entire molecule a () charge.