Antimicrobials control, destroy or suppress the growth of microorganisms and their negative effects of odour, staining and deterioration.

1. ECO FRIENDLY ANTI-
MICROB TREATMENT OF
TEXTILES
Presented by,

2. What are microbes or microorganisms?

3.  Further, sub divisions in the bacteria family are Gram
positive (Staphylococcus S-aureus), Gram negative (E-
Coli), spore bearing or non-spore bearing type.
Sources of microbes
• In the air we breath
• In the soil
• In our skin and bodies
• Everywhere

4. Ideal Conditions For microbial Growth
• Food
• Warm temperature
• Moisture (Humidity, Spills)
• Receptive surface (skin, fabric)

5. What are antimicrobials?
 Antimicrobials control, destroy or suppress the
growth of microorganisms and their negative
effects of odour, staining and deterioration.

6. Necessity of Antimicrobial Finishes
Antimicrobial treatment for textile materials is necessary to
Fulfill the following objectives:
• To control micro organisms
• To reduce odour from perspiration, stains and other soil on
textile material
• To reduce the risk of cross infection being carried by feet
from ward to ward in hospital
• To control spread of disease and danger of infection
following injury
• To control the deterioration of textiles
particularly fabrics made from natural
fibre caused by mildew

7. Requirements for Antimicrobial Finish
The following requirements need to be satisfied to obtain maximum
Benefits out of the finish:
• Durability to washing, dry cleaning and hot pressing
• Selective activity to undesirable micro organisms
• Should not produce harmful effects to the manufacturer, user
and the environment
• Should comply with the statutory requirements of regulating
agencies
• Compatibility with the chemical processes
• Easy method of application
• No deterioration of fabric quality
• Resistant to body fluids
• Resistant to dis-infections/sterilization.

8. Antimicrobial Finishing Methodologies
 The antimicrobial agents can be applied to the textile
substrates by exhaust, pad-dry-cure, coating, spray
and foam techniques.
 The substances can also be applied by directly adding
into the fibre spinning dope.
 It is claimed that the commercial agents can be
applied online during the dyeing and finishing
operations.

9. Various methods for improving the durability of the
finish include:
• Insolubilisation of the active substances in/on the fibre
• Treating the fibre with resin, condensates or cross linking
agents
• Micro encapsulation of the antimicrobial agents with the
fibre matrix Coating the fibre surface
• Chemical modification of the fibre by covalent bond
formation
• Use of graft polymers, homo polymers and/or co
polymerization on to the fibre.

10. Natural Antimicrobial Plants

11. Eco friendly antimicrobial sources
Neem
Aloe Vera
Chitosan
Sericin
Tea tree
Eucalyptus
Tulsi
Clove oil
Onion skin & pulp
Adzuki beans

12. Preparation of Neem Leaf Extract
 Fresh mature green neem (Azadirachta in-dica) leaves
were collected, washed and dry in hot air oven at
temperature 40ºC. After complete drying they were
made into a fine powder by crushing and grinding.
 Powder was then subjected to organic solvent
(methanol) to get the concentrated methanolic extract.
Extraction was carried out by SOXHLET method as
per standard described by Mukherjee (2002).
NEEM

13. Antimicrobial Finish Application
 Antimicrobial finish was applied on with methanolic neem
leaf extract. Finish was applied on fabric by two methods,
that is, exhaust and pad dry cure method.
Exhaust Method:
 Neem extract in two concentrations (3 gpl and 5gpl) was set
in a bath. The material to liquor ratio was taken as
1:20.The sample was entered into the antimicrobial bath
with pH 5-6 adjusted with acetic acid. The bath
temperature was raised to 70ºC and it was kept at this
temperature for 30 minutes. A post treatment was given
with citric acid (8% on the weight of fabric) at room
temperature. Finally samples were washed with cold water
and dried. Neem treatment was given to enzymatically
scoured as well as grey wool fabric.
NEEM

14. Pad Dry Cure Method:
 The sample was immersed in 3 gpl and 5 gpl
concentration of methanolic extract of neem for thirty
minutes. After this sample was taken out and padded
on two-bowl pneumatic padding mangle at a pressure
of 2.5 psi with two dips and nips to give a wet pick up
of 85%. The fabric was then dried at 80ºC for 3 min
and cured at 120ºC for 2min on a lab model curing
chamber treatment was given with citric acid (fixing
agent) at room temperature. The samples were then
again padded on a two-bowl pneumatic padding
mangle at a pressure of 2.5 psi, dried at 80°C and
cured at 120°C.
NEEM

15. Neem application has been done successfully by exhaust and pad dry
cure method on wool fabric. Antibacterial activity of neem treated
wool fabric was studied by quantitatively. Effectiveness of finish
Was also accessed after different washing cycles. From this Study
following conclusions were derived–
 1.As the concentration of extract increases% bacterial reduction
was also increased.
 2. Enzymatically scoured wool fabric treated with neem extract
shows very good antimicrobial activity than neem treated grey
wool fabric.
 3.The antimicrobial effect on the neem treated wool fabric sample
was durable even after 20 washing cycles.
 4.Since the active neem ingredient extracted from neem leaves can
serve as appropriate alternative for eco-friendly antimicrobial
finish to conventional harmful chemicals in
present use.
NEEM

16. Extraction of aloe gel
 Aloe is processed within four hours of
harvesting by using the hand fillet process. In
this process, aloe gel was extracted by removing
the outer layer of leaves and releasing the
yellow sap, called latex (which contains aloin).
The gel was further smashed for 90 min (in a
machine)and then filtered to avoid any
contamination.
ALOE GEL

17. Preparation of finish
 The aloe gel extracted were used as antimicrobial
agents. These agents were mixed in acetic acid
(100%conc.) at liquor ratio 10:1 to form a finish.
Furthermore these finishes were filtered and tested
using a multi parameter bench meter of HANNA
instruments(USA).
ALOE GEL

18. ALOE GEL

19. Application of finish
 615 GSM towel fabric was produced by using 60 tex ground
yarn, 36 tex weft yarn, and 60 tex pile yarn at 25 ends/cm, 18
picks/cm and with an 11 mm pile height on the loom. Then
bleached towel samples were treated with 5,7 and 10%
Concentrations of the aloe gel (AG)separately. The same samples
were then treated with a
 Hybrid combination of aloe gel extracts of 5,7 and 10%
concentration. The samples were finished on a Data Color Eco
exhaust dyeing machine model 650, from Data Color (USA) at 80 °C
while maintaining the pH at 5 for 30 minutes at a liquor ratio of
1:20. Then the samples were dried at80 °C
for 15 minutes in a tumble drying Machine.
ALOE GEL

20.  Cotton samples treated with 5, 7, and10% concentrations of
AG were subjected to antibacterial activity testing.
 It was observed from the above results that the circular
inhibition zone increases with increasing concentrations of
AG. Aloe gel contains multiple substances (anthraquinones,
flavonoids, Saponins, tannins and polysaccharides) that
have antibacterial and antifungal activities. These
substances have the ability to bind adhesions, complex
with cell wall, inactivate enzymes, denaturing Proteins
and disrupt the membrane to limit the growth of
microbes by disabling cell functioning or reproduction
ALOE GEL

21. CHITOSAN

22. SERICIN

23. TEA TREE

24. TEA TREE

25. EUCALYPTUS OIL

26. TULSI

27. CLOVE OIL

28. ONION SKIN & PULP

29. ADZUKI BEANS

30. References
 Eco friendly anti microbial finishing of textiles using bio active agents on
natural products- IJFTR – Vol-34-2009.
 Khurshid MF, Ayyoob M, Asad M, Shah SNH. Assessment of Eco-Friendly
Natural Antimicrobial Textile Finish Extracted from Aloe Vera and Neem
Plants.
 Bhavani, K and Padma, A. (2011). Effect of neem as an eco-friendly
Antimicrobial finishing agent on naturally dyed and hand woven carpets
 Developments in Antimicrobial Textiles – Some Insights on Current
Research Trends N Gokarneshan*, VB Nagarajan and SR Viswanath
 Antimicrobial Finishes R K Aswini Department of TextileTechnology, PSG
College of Technology, Coimbatore

31. Thank
you..,