Indian Scientists’ Response to CoViD-19, (ISRC)
(2020)
Will rinsing my hands, mouth, and nasal passage with coconut oil dissolve the virus envelope and prevent infection.
i wonder....
p. 75.
ISSN 2582-1636
Abstract
Since ‘like dissolves like’, a polar or charged substance can
dissolve other polar substances, and nonpolar substances
can dissolve other nonpolar substances. This means that
polar lipids can dissolve the outermost layer (called the
envelope) of a coronavirus, which is made up of a fat-like
(polar) substance. Soaps can also achieve this. In other
words, both polar lipids and soaps can form the “micelles”
that are required to dissolve and break polar phospholipid
bilayers, like those in cell membranes and the envelope of
a coronavirus. Coconut oil, on the other hand, consists only
of nonpolar fatty acids, which form globules (instead of
micelles) when mixed with water. Even in ionised, charged
states, these fatty acids do not form micelles efficiently
due to their chemical structure. What about soaps that use
coconut oil as a base? The oil in these soaps is ‘saponified’,
or changed to a different chemical structure through a
chemical reaction. So applying coconut oil to one’s hands
would not affect SARS-CoV-2
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