How would you interview someone for a job like this? ;o)
Posted on 05/20/2002 5:28:25 PM PDT by aculeus
Starving the bacteria that cause body odour of the iron they need to grow may soon arm deodorants with an extra stink-stopping weapon.
Fresh sweat has no odour. But bacteria feed on our excretions, especially in the warm, damp armpits, and produce malodorous molecules as a byproduct. Standard underarm deodorants often use alcohol to kill the bacteria, but usually some bacteria survive and begin growing back.
Manufacturers sometimes add additional anti-bacterials, perfumes and antiperspirants to try to increase efficacy. But Andrew S Landa and colleagues at Unilever Research and Development, in Port Sunlight, north-west England, are trying a new approach - starving the bacteria of iron.
Sweat contains trace amounts of iron, and bacteria need it in order to multiply. So Landa and colleagues used a chemical called diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), which binds iron and keeps the bacteria from using it.
Because some bacteria can also extract iron from iron-carrying proteins which are also present in sweat, the researchers also added butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), which released the iron from the proteins, and allowed it to be captured by the DTPA.
Armpit assessors
According to a paper presented at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Salt Lake City on Monday, a deodorant with DTPA and BHT added to alcohol kept bacteria populations lower after 24 hours than alcohol alone.
It controlled smell better, too, according to "expert assessors" at Unilever. These people have the unenviable job of applying the new deodorant and a control to the armpits of volunteers, and then assessing how the armpits smelled after five and again after 24 hours.
"I think we calculated for 8000 armpits," Landa says. The tests were double-blind, and again the iron-capturing formulation worked better than just alcohol.
Landa would not say whether Unilever is planning to market a deodorant that uses the new agents. But the company has already applied for patents on the technology in Europe and the US.
There is just not enough money in the world to make me take that job.
How would you interview someone for a job like this? ;o)
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