Esemtan

Esemtan is a German range of skin-cleansing and body-care products made for patients in hospitals and care homes. It belongs to Schülke & Mayr GmbH, the infection-prevention company that trades as schülke and has its headquarters in Norderstedt, just north of Hamburg. The company describes Esemtan as "a coordinated skin care line for medical body care for patients" [11]. In practice the range covers the everyday work of keeping a patient clean and comfortable: a wash lotion, a cleansing foam, pre-moistened wash mitts, and a lotion and a balm for normal and dry skin.

Esemtan has no website, social media accounts or company of its own. It is one brand among many in schülke's portfolio, sitting next to the hand disinfectants, antiseptics and wound-care products the company is better known for. When the line was first introduced has not been made public. The brand is active: its products are listed with current order numbers on schülke's websites, and the latest product information sheet for the wash mitts is dated January 2025.

No separate sale of Esemtan has been reported; its ownership history is that of its parent. Schülke & Mayr was founded in Hamburg in 1889 by the merchants Rudolf Schülke and Julius Mayr, and its early growth rested on the disinfectant Lysol [12]. In 1913 the company launched Sagrotan, a disinfectant for household use that the company says is still associated with hygiene today. These dates describe the parent company only. They say nothing about when Esemtan itself appeared.

Over the past three decades the parent has changed hands three times. The French group Air Liquide bought Schülke & Mayr in 1996, and the company remained an Air Liquide subsidiary for more than twenty years [3]. In April 2020 the Swedish investment firm EQT acquired schülke outright. Three years later EQT sold the business to a consortium led by the Athos family office of the brothers Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann, which has owned it since 2023 [12].

Throughout these changes the company has stayed in Norderstedt, where it laid the foundation stone for a new factory in 1961. According to schülke, the headquarters brings together all of its main business functions in one place [2]. The company says it is represented on five continents through subsidiaries and distribution partners.

Within schülke, Esemtan belongs to a cluster of brands aimed at patient care. Its sister brand Octenisept is a wound antiseptic based on the active ingredient octenidine. The company's professional skin range also includes the octenisan washing products, sensiva wash lotion and the skin antiseptics kodan and octeniderm. Esemtan is the part of that family concerned with ordinary washing and moisturising rather than with killing germs.

At group level, schülke joined the Science Based Targets initiative, a framework for setting climate targets, in June 2022. Its targets were validated in November 2023 [3]. By 2030, measured against 2021, the company aims to cut emissions from its own operations and purchased energy by 42 percent and those linked to purchased goods and services by 25 percent. These commitments belong to schülke as a whole; no climate or sustainability targets specific to Esemtan have been published.

Esemtan is a care product, not a medicine. Its job, as schülke presents it, is to keep the skin of people who depend on others for their hygiene clean, comfortable and intact. Several products are explicitly aimed at bedridden and incontinent patients, and the wash mitts are described as particularly suitable for people who are immobile or in need of care.

The company ties this practical role to how patients feel. Its range brochure states that "the simple, natural care promotes a patient's sense of well-being" [11]. It closes on the tagline "esemtan® – and patients feel good in their skin." The same brochure argues that feeling well groomed matters to a person's psychological well-being, and that skin care becomes harder and more important with age.

The line is aimed first at professionals rather than at shoppers. Its brochure addresses caregivers directly with the line "esemtan® – for your patients." Pack sizes are built for wards and care homes. The wash lotion, for instance, is supplied in 5-litre canisters, in one-litre and 500 ml bottles, and in schülke's own dispenser bottles. On schülke's websites the products appear mainly under professional use, although some are also listed among the company's consumer skin-care products.

That positioning mirrors schülke's wider business. The company sums up its mission as protecting lives worldwide, and it works with hospitals, care facilities, pharmacies, medical practices, emergency services and the pharmaceutical industry [2]. Esemtan covers the gentler, everyday end of that work. The wash lotion, for example, is intended both for washing patients, including before surgery, and for cleaning the hands before surgical and hygienic hand disinfection [7].

The Esemtan range is organised around a simple sequence: cleansing with water, cleansing without water, and skin care afterwards. The company styles the name in lower case, as "esemtan®", on its packaging and product pages.

### Cleansing with water

The wash lotion is the core of the range. It is a soap-free wash lotion with a light scent, made with what schülke calls skin-compatible surfactants, the mild cleansing agents that do the washing. It contains allantoin, which the company says soothes the skin, provides moisture and supports cell renewal. Its listed ingredients also include sodium laureth sulfate, a common foaming agent, and perfume. schülke describes the lotion as dermatologically tested. It can be used for hand washing, in the shower or added to a full or partial bath.

### Cleansing without water

Much of the range is designed for patients who cannot be washed in the usual way. The cleansing foam is an aerosol foam for cleaning soiled skin, for example after diarrhoea or incontinence. It is sprayed onto the skin, left on briefly and then wiped off with disposable cloths. schülke says the foam cleans gently, binds odours and reduces germs, and that it leaves no sticky film [8].

The wash mitts are soft, pre-moistened gloves for washing the whole body without water and without rinsing. Each mitt covers one area of the body, and the instructions divide the body into eight areas, from the face, neck and chest down to the legs and back. If needed, the pack can be warmed briefly in a microwave before use.

Two versions appear on schülke's current product pages, wash mitts fresh and wash mitts sensitive. The sensitive version is a non-woven glove made of PET and viscose. The company describes it as free of fragrance, pH-neutral for the skin and suitable for sensitive skin, tested by the dermatological testing institute Dermatest [6]. For its claim that ready-to-use mitts save time in daily care, schülke points to a 2015 study by Nøddeskou and colleagues published in the Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences.

The sensitive mitts are the only Esemtan product described as fragrance-free. The other products in the range contain perfume.

### Skin care

Two leave-on products follow the wash. The dry skin balm is a colour-free body balm for dry and demanding skin, built around shea butter, which schülke says restores the skin's suppleness and helps regulate its moisture balance. The company describes it as dermatologically tested [9]. The skin lotion is its lighter counterpart, a colour-free lotion for normal skin that contains jojoba oil. According to schülke, jojoba oil helps preserve the thin layer of oil and moisture that protects the skin's surface.

Earlier editions of the range went further. The 2020 brochure also listed a bath oil based on soya oil, intended for very dry skin, and an "active gel" with essential oils, presented as refreshing and as stimulating blood circulation. The active gel is still listed as a related product on schülke's current pages. The bath oil does not appear there, although its withdrawal has not been announced.

### Dispensing

The wash lotion is also sold in hyclick dispenser bottles, a schülke system in which the pump and bottle are joined as a single unit. When the bottle is empty, the whole unit is replaced, and a red "first-opening" clip shows whether a bottle has been used. The company presents this as making bottle changes easier and reducing the risk of cross-contamination, the transfer of germs from one surface or person to another [11].

Esemtan is an active brand. Its wash lotion, cleansing foam and wash mitts are listed with current order numbers and barcodes on schülke's Swiss website, and the dry skin balm has its own page on the company's international site. Safety data sheets for the balm are published for markets including the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The most recent dated document is a product information sheet for the wash mitts, issued in January 2025. schülke notes that its products are not available in every country [10]. The brand is sold mainly to hospitals and care facilities, with some products also offered to consumers.