Formaldehyde is the simplest aldehyde compound. Glutaraldehyde is a type of di-aldehyde. The key difference between formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde is that formaldehyde contains a single aldehyde functional group, whereas glutaraldehyde contains two aldehyde functional groups.
What is the purpose of glutaraldehyde?
Glutaraldehyde is used as a cold sterilant to disinfect and clean heat-sensitive equipment such as dialysis instruments, surgical instruments, suction bottles, bronchoscopes, endoscopes, and ear, nose, and throat instruments.
Why is glutaraldehyde not used as a routine fixative?
Tissue fixed in glutaraldehyde will be more extensively cross-linked than tissue fixed in formalin and will also possess some unreacted aldehyde groups that, unless chemically blocked, can cause background staining in methods such as PAS . … Glutaraldehyde is not normally used for routine histopathology.