Sodium dichloroisocyanurate is a chlorinated cleaner. It was used for swimming pool sanitation and for the sterilisation of linen. Not recently ago sodium dichloroisocyanurate has substituted hypochlorite for the sterilisation of infant feeding bottles and teats. Sodium dichloroisocyanurate is soluble in water; this condition causes the hydrolysis of sodium dichloroisocyanurate in hypochlorous acid, that is the active agent, isocyanurate and isocyanurate chlorine. These compounds form a chlorine protein that carry out microbicidal activity. In a toxicology study has been shown that no severe changes in the normal metabolic function occurred, furthermore sodium dichloroisocyanurate has not shown teratogenic effects at the concentration of 200 mg/kg. The antimicrobial activity of sodium dichloroisocyanurate was evaluated against Gram negative bacteria such as E. coli or Salmonella typhimurium and against some fungi. This study illustrates a rapid antimicrobial activity using concentrations. Our study concentrated on the antimicrobial activity of sodium dichloroisocyanurate in some experimental conditions. We tested 66 strains of fungi, 28 Gram positive bacteria and 29 Gram negative bacteria. We also evaluated the antimicrobial activity of sodium dichloroisocyanurate against protozoa such as Trichomonas vaginalis. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated in cultural conditions and non cultural conditions; in these experiments we observed similar action in both the commercial product and pure substance. In cultural conditions sodium dichloroisocyanurate shows a good activity against fungi and bacteria, moreover it can be observed that the serum didn't interfere with its activity. In a non cultural condition the Candida was killed rapidly by the sodium dichloroisocyanurate but this activity is influenced by the growth phase of the yeast. Against mycelial form such as Penicillium and Aspergillus the sodium dichloroisocyanurate needs a longer contact time than yeast form for its activity. It is interesting to note that well known bacteria, that are resistant to the common antimicrobial agents, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, were inhibited by sodium dichloroisocyanurate in a rapid bactericidal action. Our data demonstrates that no significant adverse influence on the activity of sodium dichloroisocyanurate was shown by pH and by temperature even if in some experimental conditions increased activity was noticed at pH = 6.6. The sodium dichloroisocyanurate has demonstrated good activity against Trichomonas vaginalis. This fact extends the broad-spectrum activity of sodium dichloroisocyanurate to the protozoa. In conclusion, sodium dichloroisocyanurate has demonstrated a good activity against all tested strains, furthermore its activity did not decrease in the presence of 1% of organic substance (serum etc.).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)