Question

One of the most known antiseptic, dettol is a mixture of terpineol and:
A.) Bithlonal
B.) Chloroxylenol
C.) o-cresol
D.) Serotonin

Answer 1

Hint: Dettol is one of those chemicals which we used as disinfectants. It is a homogeneous mixture, not a pure substance. It comprises 4.8% of Dettol’s total admixture, while the rest is made up of pine oil, castor oil, isopropanol, soap and water.

Complete step-by-step answer:
One of the most known antiseptic, dettol is a mixture of terpineol and chloroxylenol. These two ingredients make dettol an effective antiseptic and disinfectant that kills bacteria.

Additional Information:
Disinfectant:- These are the chemical agents which are used to destroy or kill the microorganisms on the inert surface. It’s not necessarily kill all the microorganisms, especially resistant bacterial spores.

Antiseptics:- These are the antimicrobial substances which apply on living tissue to decrease the possibility of infection. It prevents the growth of disease-causing microorganisms.

Antiseptics and disinfectants both kill microorganisms but there’s a big difference between them. An antiseptic is applied on a living cell while disinfectant is applied on non-living objects.

Both of them contain chemical agents which are commonly called biocides.

Some uses of antiseptics are given below;
Hand washing
Cleaning skin before an operation
Treating skin infections
Disinfecting mucous membranes
Treating mouth and throat infections.

Note: The possibility for the mistake is that you can choose the option (a). Bithlonal is additionally added to soaps to impart antiseptic properties to reduce the smell which is created by bacterial decay of organic matter on skin.