Glutaraldehyde Market

Report Description
Glutaraldehyde is an organic compound widely used as disinfectant and as preservative.
It is a colorless and slimy liquid, commonly available in aqueous solution. Glutaraldehyde
solutions commonly contain about 1% to 2% glutaraldehyde in it. Glutaraldehyde is
usually manufactured industrially by oxidizing cyclopentane or by reacting methyl vinyl
ether and acrolein followed by hydrolysis of the compound. The chemical is used in
different applications but its primary application is as a disinfectant or cold sterilant for
medical dental and surgical equipments.
All medically invasive procedures require sterilization of the equipments in order to rule
out any chances of infection resulting from contaminated equipments. Glutaraldehyde
solution is extensively used in the medical and health care industry to cold sterilize the
equipments prior to any surgical procedure. Some of the medical equipment sterilizing
products that contain glutaraldehyde as an active ingredient are Hospex, Glutarex, Cidex,
Aldesen and Soniacide among many others. Apart from its use in medical device
sterilization it is also used as a fixative agent for tissues. Tissue fixation comprise of two
steps: killing the normal function of the tissue and stabilizing the structure of the tissue.
Glutaraldehyde cross links the protein of the cells and helps to kill the cells quickly. This
completes the first step of tissue fixation. Apart from that glutaraldehyde is also
employed as a hardening or cross linking agent to reduce the drying cycle in X-Ray film
processing. This application is not only wide spread in the medical industry but has found
application in some engineering applications as well.