E-Paper
Component in mouthwash effective against Covid: Panjab University-IMTECH study
The study is yet to be verified by clinical studies, say professors
An experimental study carried out by the researchers of the Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital of Panjab University and CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) has concluded that a component in the most routinely-used mouthwash is effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Chlorhexidine gluconate is widely used in germicidal mouthwash. Besides, the study has also found povidone-iodine to be effective in inactivating the virus.
The chlorhexidine gluconate mouth rinse in 0.2% concentration has been found to be most effective, inactivating more than 99% of the virus.
The research, conducted by professors Ashish Jain and Vishakha Grover of PU’s dental institute in collaboration with Krishan Gopal Thakur of IMTECH and others, has been submitted to a major scientific journal for publishing.
‘Results need to be verified with clinical studies’
Professor Ashish Jain said, “Our work suggests that chlorhexidine 0.2% which amounts to the most widely-used mouthwash can be an effective regiment in the war against Covid-19. However, these are initial results from lab studies and need to be verified via clinical studies; commercial samples available in the market that contain other additives need to be tested against this claim.”
The study has found that 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate, at merely 30 seconds of contact time, achieves immediate inactivation of the virus. At 0.12% concentration, the component was also found to be effective, but its effectiveness was marginally lesser. Povidone-iodine has been found more than 99.9% effective at 60 seconds contact time.
