Tincture of iodine

Tincture of iodine, iodine tincture, or weak iodine solution is an antiseptic. It is usually 2% elemental iodine, along with potassium iodide or sodium iodide, dissolved in a mixture of ethanol and water. Tincture solutions are characterized by the presence of alcohol. It was used from at least 1907 in emergency pre-operative skin preparation by the Italian surgeon Antonio Grossich;^[1][2] three years later, an experimental study at the University of Genoa’s Institute of Hygiene resulted in a mere 3% infection rate in injuries treated by Grossich’s disinfection method, as against 21% in those treated by the prevailing method.^[3]

In the United Kingdom, the development of an iodine solution for skin sterilisation was pioneered by Lionel Stretton. The British Medical Journal published the detail of his work at Kidderminster Infirmary in 1909.^[4] Stretton used a much weaker solution than that used by Grossich. He claimed in 1915 that Grossich had been using a liquid akin to Liquor Iodi Fortis, and that it was he, Stretton, who had introduced the method using Tincture of Iodine BP, which came to be used across the world. ^[5]