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The article deals with aldehyde microbicidals including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal, succinaldehyde and 2-propenal among others. It offers information on their chemical and structural formulas, molecular mass, chemical and physical properties, toxicity and antimicrobial effectiveness and applications.

When trying to classify or to subclassify material protecting microbicides to their mode of action, e.g. as membrane-active and electrophilically active agents, it turned out that a clear assignment is not always possible. For that reason it has been resorted to chemistry’s principle of classifying, i.e. organisation of microbicides by the following groupings: Alcohols — Aldehydes — Aldehyde releasing compounds — Phenol derivatives — Acids — Acid esters — Amides — Carbamates — Dibenzamidines — Pyridine derivatives — Azoles — Heterocyclic N, S compounds — Compounds with activated halogen atoms — Surface-active agents — Organometallic compounds — Various compounds — Oxidizing agents Such a classification provides in most cases the first necessary information about a microbicide’s properties. The data sets inform about the chemical and physical properties of the microbicides, their toxicity (including their ecotoxicity), their antimicrobial effectiveness and applicability. Sources for toxicity data are, if not otherwise indicated: Supplier names do not claim to be always complete and up-to-date. Nowadays it is not rare that active agents have been discontinued, or being made by another company; corporate takeovers, or the shift of microbicides to a new company have also taken place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'tis, we musicians know, the C Major of this life. Paintings and museum reconstructions depicting the activities of medieval alchemists can easily give the wrong impression of the chemical knowledge of that period. Inanimate objects such as crystals are seen sharing shelves with the preserved bodies of small creatures, a common feature of the early laboratory. This could be taken to suggest that the scientists of those days had grasped the unity of chemistry: that in spite of great differences in their external appearance, Nature makes no distinction between chemical combinations in living and dead substances. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The universally held belief was that the matter contained in living organisms possessed an essential extra ingredient, a vital force, the mysterious origin of which was attributable to divine powers. This attitude was epitomized in the succinct classification to be found in the book Cours de Chyme, published by Nicholas Lemery in 1685. His division is still to be found in the standard first question of a popular parlour game: ‘animal, vegetable or mineral?’. By the end of the eighteenth century, the vital force theory was in rapid decline. Antoine Lavoisier, analyzing typical organic compounds, found them to contain inorganic substances such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur and phosphorus. The basic principles that govern chemical change, such as conservation of total mass, were being established during this period, and in 1844 Jöns Berzelius showed that they apply to all matter irrespective of whether it is inorganic or organic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When trying to classify or to subclassify material protecting microbicides to their mode of action, e.g. as membrane-active and electrophilically active agents, it turned out that a clear assignment is not always possible. For that reason it has been resorted to chemistry’s principle of classifying, i.e. organisation of microbicides by the following groupings: Alcohols — Aldehydes — Aldehyde releasing compounds — Phenol derivatives — Acids — Acid esters — Amides — Carbamates — Dibenzamidines — Pyridine derivatives — Azoles — Heterocyclic N, S compounds — Compounds with activated halogen atoms — Surface-active agents — Organometallic compounds — Various compounds — Oxidizing agents Such a classification provides in most cases the first necessary information about a microbicide’s properties. The data sets inform about the chemical and physical properties of the microbicides, their toxicity (including their ecotoxicity), their antimicrobial effectiveness and applicability. Sources for toxicity data are, if not otherwise indicated: Supplier names do not claim to be always complete and up-to-date. Nowadays it is not rare that active agents have been discontinued, or being made by another company; corporate takeovers, or the shift of microbicides to a new company have also taken place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]