Bacterial Growth in Enzymatic Detergent Solutions and Development of a Self-disinfecting Enzymatic Detergent for Precleaning

Abstract

The cleaning effect on cloth swatches impregnated with beef liver homogenate as well as the presence and proliferation of surviving bacteria in solutions of 4 kinds of detergent, 3 commercially available enzymatic detergents used for washing medical instruments and a newly developed enzymatic detergent with seif-disinfecting activity, were investigated and compared. After bacteria were inoculated and kept at 37℃ for 24 hours, the survival or multiplication of bacteria was observed in almost all the bacteria species tested with 1 % solutions of the commercially available enzymatic detergents. Bacteria were not detected from 0.5% solutions of the newly developed enzymatic detergent and the cleaning effect was also superior to the 3 other enzymatic detergents. The difference in performance is believed to be due to the addition of peroxygen bleach, and due to the solution being weakly alkaline, the pH condition best suited for the protein-decomposing enzyme (protease). It is thought that this enzymatic detergent with self-disinfecting activity can possibly be used as a detergent dip, a precleaning dip, and a dryness/adherence prevention agent for medical instruments.