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. 1980 Oct;18(4):638–641. doi: 10.1128/aac.18.4.638

Bactericidal activity of cerumen.

T J Chai, T C Chai
PMCID: PMC284062  PMID: 7447422

Abstract

Freshly collected cerumen (dry form) suspended at a concentration of 3% in glycerol-sodium bicarbonate buffer showed bactericidal activity against some strains of bacteria tested. This suspension reduced the viability of Haemophilus influenzae, Escherichia coli K-12, and Serratia marcescens by more than 99%, whereas the viability of two Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates, E. coli K-1, Streptococcus, and two Staphylococcus aureus isolates of human origin was reduced by 30 to 80%. The results support the hypothesis that cerumen functions to kill certain foreign organisms which enter the ear canal.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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