RESUMO
In Myanmar, many people routinely use bar soaps such as Shwe-war and carbolic for hand washing. In this study the effectiveness of hand decontamination by using the natural products such as kin-mun-thee, neem leaves, ashes and locally available soap such as sand soap powder, kin-mun-thee soap, neem-seed-oil soap, Myingyan wooden soap and thet-thar detergent was observed. The study was carried out in the Bacteriology laboratory on 66 subjects from June to November 1996. The hand swabs were collected before and after hand washing with different cleansing materials and faecal coliform count was tested by using multiple tube method. Faecal coliform count was reduced in using carbolic, kin-mun-thee, neem-seed-oil and Myingyan wooden bar soap. It was also reduced when using the natural products such as sand soap powder, ashes from kitchen, liquid of boiled neem leaves and liquid of boiled kin-mun-thee.