High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Lugol's iodine, also known as Lugol's solution, first made in 1829, is a solution of elemental iodine and potassium iodide in water, named after the French physician J.G.A. Lugol. Lugol's iodine solution is often used as an antiseptic and disinfectant, for emergency disinfection of drinking water, and as a reagent for starch detection in routine laboratory and medical tests. These uses are possible since the solution is a source of effectively free elemental iodine, which is readily generated from the equilibration between elemental iodine molecules and triiodide ion in the solution