The Influence of Certain Inorganic Salts on the Germicidal Activity of Hydrogen Peroxide

Abstract

Several investigators have noted during recent years that the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide is accelerated by the presence of certain inorganic salts. The results of earlier investigations have been sutmmarized by Bohnson (1921) who studied the mechanism of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide by ferric salts, and noted that ethyl alcohol was oxidized to acetic acid by hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a ferric salt, a reaction which was quantitatively studied by Walton and Christensen (1926). Walton and Graham (1928) in a study of the oxidation of certain dicarboxylic acids showed that ferric or cupric salts increased the oxidizing power of hydrogen peroxide. Promoter action' in the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide has been extensively studied by Professor J. H. Walton and his students. Bohnson and Robertson (1923) and Robertson (1925) studied the promotor effect of cupric salts on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by ferric salts. Robertson (1926Robertson ( , 1927 showed that the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by potassium dichromate was promoted by cobaltous or manganous salts. Walton and Graham (unpublished data) found that the oxidation of hydrazine by hydrogen peroxide was accelerated by both cupric and ferric ions, and that the cupric ions promoted the oxidation catalyzed by the ferric ions.The germicidal activity of hydrogen peroxide is apparently 1 A promoter in the broadest sense is a substance whose presence in relatively small amount increases the activity of a catalyst. 203 on July 16, 2020 by guest

Cyanide enhances hydrogen peroxide toxicity by recruiting endogenous iron to trigger catastrophic chromosomal fragmentation

“…HP shows rapid toxicity in E. coli at concentrations higher than 20–30 mM (Imlay and Linn, 1986; 1987). In fact, the famous 3% HP first aid antiseptic (∼ 1 M concentration) kills any kind of bacteria within a few minutes (Dittmar et al ., , Rutala et al ., ).…”

Methods for Inspection of Commercial Legume Inoculants1

“…Large legume seeds were again found to be very easy to sterilize in experiments by Kisser and Portheim (126). Any lack of effectiveness could apparently be improved by addition of traces of ferric cuprous sulfates, or potassium chromate with manganous or cobaltous sulfate (Dittmar,Baldwin,and Miller,78). These authors found that in the case of Escherichia coli the germicidal efficiency was raised from a phenol coefficient of o.o14 to one of I .4 by this method, while corresponding results were obtained with Staphylococcus aureus.…”

Suitability of Sodium Pyruvate as Decomposer of Carried‐over Liquid Hydrogen Peroxide

“…Many authors reported that the bactericidal and sporicidal effect of liquid hydrogen peroxide has already been researched and published in detail [7][8][9], and numerous studies were conducted in the field of inactivation kinetics of microorganisms by liquid hydrogen peroxide [10][11][12]. However, the focus of researchers were mainly bacteria and spores of Bacillus subtilis [1,6,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Staphylococcus aureus [20,21], and Clostridia [22,23]. However, in context with the highly thermal resistant Geobacillus stearothermophilus spores, only minor survival curves determined with liquid hydrogen peroxide can be found [13,[24][25][26].…”