Triclosan and Antibiotics resistance
1.2 What is triclosan?
Triclosan is a very well
known biocide which has
been in use for over 40 years. The main application of triclosan
in the EU is in cosmetics,
where the maximum allowed concentration is currently
Commercial products contain
triclosan mixed with
several other ingredients but the exact formulation is often
unknown because companies do not want others to copy them. The
effectiveness of triclosan depends on the formulation of the
product itself and on the conditions in which it is used.
Perhaps the most important factor is the amount of triclosan
present in the product. At high
triclosan kills its target quickly, although it is not equally
effective on all
efficacy of triclosan decreases rapidly with dilution but
nevertheless, even at lower concentrations triclosan is still
successful at controlling the growth of microorganisms.