Question 19 - Past Year - 1 Mark Questions - Chapter 4 Class 10 - Carbon and its Compounds

Medicines like tincture iodine or cough syrup uses ethanol for their preparation. Why?

Answer

• Tincture of iodine is used both as an antiseptic and as a disinfectant. It is used mainly to clean the skin to prevent bacterial infections. 
• Cough syrups are used to kill the microorganisms that may be pathogenic.

Ethanol is used to make tincture of iodine or cough syrup because the cell membranes of microorganisms are made up of lipids and ethanol can dissolve the lipids easily and thereby kill them.