 Hey everybody, Dr. O. In this video we're going to talk about the alkylating agents. So maybe you haven't heard that term but you've probably heard of things like formaldehyde. So we will primarily focus on formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde but we will talk about a few other ones as well. So how these actually work, alkylating agents what they do is they pull hydrogen atoms off of molecules and plop on something with an alkyl group. Don't worry about the chemistry but obviously it inactivates the enzymes and can damage and inactivate nucleic acids which make your genetic material DNA and RNA. So let's start with formaldehyde. So formaldehyde is primarily used like when I think of formaldehyde I think of like you know old school embalming fluid or I think of the preservative that's in the specimens that we dissect like in my anatomy classes. So formaldehyde is actually at a concentration of 37% it's called formalin but in liquid solution but it can be used as a gaseous disinfectant as well. So notice I said disinfectant none of these are going to be antiseptics because they're carcinogenic and they can definitely damage living tissues so they're going to be they're very powerful disinfectants but that's their biggest drawback alright. So formaldehyde like I said is very irritating like personally I'm around it I'm kind of used to it but I definitely have some problems if I get it on my on my skin as anyone would. Alright so that's going to be formaldehyde or formalin that's the key thing with formaldehyde is that 37% solution of formaldehyde is called formalin and that's going to be what preserves the specimens in our labs. Glutaraldehyde is going to be more effective you only need about 2% of it it is it is a sterilizing agent often you'll see it under the name the brand name of Psydex. So glutaraldehyde glutaraldehyde is like the next generation of formaldehyde and it does appear to be an actual chemical sterilizing agent. Speaking of sterilizing agents let's jump down to ethylene oxide ethylene oxide is the only gaseous sterilant that we talk about on a regular basis in my courses. So ethylene oxide it's used if you want to sterilize packaged materials there used to be larger like ethylene oxide sterilizing chambers but so ethylene oxide just remember it can be a gaseous sterilant. Now the last one here we won't talk about the propionylactone but the new one OPAO thalaldehyde is slowly replacing glutaraldehyde so you'll see this in newer formulations of Psydex the brand name there the reason it is becoming more popular is because it's actually more effective especially against the mycobacterium that caused tuberculosis but is less irritating it doesn't smell as bad either so that's the good thing about a lot of these chemicals is hopefully we continue to find and replace old ones with chemicals that are more effective less irritating etc. Alright so those are the alkylating agents so you had an example glutaraldehyde and this Othalaldehyde would be examples of chemical sterilants sterilizing agents that actually remove all living things and then ethylene oxide would be my favorite example of a gaseous sterilant. Okay those are your alkylating agents have a wonderful day be blessed.