Learn how to make hand sanitiser at home

By Pooja Nagdev

New Delhi, April 13  Washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to disinfect them.

But if soap and water are not available, alcohol-based hand sanitiser is an alternative.

Store-bought hand sanitisers have wither run out in most places or have become overpriced both online and in-stores amid this lockdown. There has been a rapid increase in the demand of hand sanitisers, as a result, most of the retailers are running out of stock.

But worry not! You can prepare a sanitiser at home which is as effective as any stock-bought one. Called Hydroalcoholic gel, one can easily make it at home with alcohol, water, emollient or emulsifier such as glycerine or aloe vera gel.

The skin-friendly Hydroalcoholic Gel composition enhances rapid and long term anti-microbial efficacy.

The ingredients needed to make your own disinfectant are listed:

1. A bowl

2. Aloe vera gel or juice

3. Alcohol (isopropyl) at least 70%

4. Essential oil ( any of lavender, tea tree, basil, eucalyptus or lemon oil),

5. Glycerine about 5% of formula as alcohol tends to make hands very dry.

Alcohol is an effective and inexpensive disinfectant. The alcohol used in hydro-alcoholic solutions is usually ethanol, isopropanol (also called isopropyl alcohol) or a mixture of the two. The volume concentration of alcohol must be greater than 60 per cent for the disinfectant to be effective. In most cases, it is between 60 and 80 per cent.

Glycerin (also known as glycerol) is an effective moisturizer, prevents skin dryness that is caused by rapid evaporation of alcohol.

Water will dilute the alcohol if necessary to reach alcohol concentration. The added water reduces the cost of the formula and acts in association with glycerin against the drying of the skin by alcohol. One can make distilled water at home by boiling the water to 100 degrees and cooling it down subsequently.

Take Glycerine, alcohol, purified water and other ingredients; mix them together and pour into a bottle with a spray pump.

Store it and keep handy to use every time.

(With inputs from Pooja Nagdev, Founder of INATUR Ayurveda & Aromatherapy)