title: Study and application of herbal disinfectants in China.
abstract: Disinfection means killing or removing pathogenic microorganisms in media to realize a harmless process. A disinfectant, which is also referred to as a disinfection medicine in relevant regulations, is the medicine used to kill microorganisms for the purpose of disinfection. The disinfectants prepared from plants (including traditional Chinese herbal medicines) and the extracts thereof are called herbal disinfectants. China has a long history of using herbal disinfectants. As early as in 533 A.D., the use of Cornel to sterilize well water was recorded in Necessary Techniques for Qi People by Jia Enxie of the Beiwei Dynasty. During the Dragon Boat Festival, people often use fumigants made of traditional Chinese herbal medicines like Chinese Atractylodes, Argy Wormwood Leaf and Red Arsenic Sulfide to smoke their houses, so as to ward off plagues and drive away evils. In fact this is now a kind of disinfection practice.
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Nanshan District Sanitary and Anti-epidemic Station, Shenzhen 518054, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Zhao-Bin
authors.initials: ZB
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001152:Arsenicals / Q000494:pharmacology; D031174:Atractylodes / Q000737:chemistry; D002681:China; D004202:Disinfectants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005651:Fumigation; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D009092:Mucous Membrane / Q000382:microbiology; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry; D012874:Skin Diseases, Infectious / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D013440:Sulfides / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D001152:Arsenicals; D004202:Disinfectants; D010936:Plant Extracts; D013440:Sulfides; C045816:arsenic trisulfide