How to make a sanitizer is a question most people want answered right now, especially during these difficult times caused by COVID-19. For lower income earning households, hand sanitizers have never been Basic until the outbreak of a pandemic that is corona virus. However, with or with no COVID, hand sanitizers still remain the simplest and most efficient option of strangling unknown germs that we interact with on a day to day basis.
Economically, purchasing factory made sanitizers weekly can leave one in poverty and hunger. It is therefore wise to learn how to make some of these items yourself. The advantage of making them is that you can command the quantities that you need at a very low prize.
To make a local hand sanitizer, you need the following: Ethanol of about 95% cc, aloe vera leaves and lemon juice or citric acid crystals.
If you are a consumer of alcohol, just try not to taste this one. 95% cc can kill you, if not leaving you blind.
To start off, you must first make a gel from aloe vera leaves. The leaves can be gotten from a botanical garden in towns and from the bush in the villages.
Procedure of Making an Aloe- Gel
1. Wash the leaves with a lot of water to remove any soil particles, then put them in an upright position for 12 minutes to rid that mucous like jelly.
2. Wash the leaves again to remove the remaining mucous like jelly.
3. Peel the green back of the leaves and gently extract the gel using a spoon, into a blender, avoiding the skin particles.
4. Once you have gotten the quantity you want, (2 parts of alcohol to 1 part of aloe-gel is the ratio), Connect your blender to a power source and turn it on. A liquid froth of the gel is formed after one minute.
If you are intending to use the gel later than a week, it is good that you preserve it in refrigerator or just locally by adding 500 mg of citric acid crystals or a table spoon of lemon juice.
We can now proceed to our hand sanitizer using the steps below. The procedure gives direction on how to make 750ml of sanitizer though you can custom it to fit the quantity that you want.
Procedure of Making the Hand Sanitizer
1. Measure 500ml of 95% ethanol into a container. Add 250ml of aloe gel and shake the mixture thoroughly.
2. Add a table spoon of lemon juice or citric acid crystals. This is acting as a preservative
Precautions
1. Your hands must be washed thoroughly throughout the entire process.
2. The back of aloe leaves should at no time find their way into the blender. They contain a chemical substance that can irritate your skin.
3. Ensure you stick to the formula ratio of 2:1.
4. Do not add water to the ethanol.
5. Do not drink the ethanol or the prepared sanitizer.
