Sawdust As Disinfectant

If you live in Portland, you’re probably familiar with the little shops on NW 23rd St that sell all kinds of all-natural, good-smelling products. Soaps, disinfectants, and face washes with names like Iris Agave or Perrine Lemon. But the fancy names aren’t the only benefit to these all-natural disinfectants. Widespread use of harsh chemicals like bleach have been shown to cause environmental damage and form dangerous products when mixed with other substances. However, environmental engineer Shicheng Zhang of Fudan University in Shanghai and his research team may have recently found a way around these issues. They found that phenols, compounds that can serve as more natural substitutes for these harsh disinfectants, can be found in sawdust. When these chemicals were applied to microbes like E. coli, anthrax, and some flu viruses that can cause infections, they were able to eliminate more than 99% of these harmful pathogens. It’s possible that in a few years, you’ll be able to find these woodsy-smelling compounds in our local all-natural shops. You can learn more about this research here.

 

Natalie Wang is currently working on her undergraduate degrees in Neuroscience and Medicine, Science, and the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University as a Hodson Trust Scholar. Her research interests are in DNA damage and repair, as well as post-operative delirium in older patients. Natalie started volunteering with WIS PDX in 2019 as a member of the outreach and education team, and is now the producer and a co-host of WIS's podcast, WISterhood. When not listening to music or doom-scrolling on Twitter, she can be found checking closets for Narnia.