Novel improvement of bioactive microencapsulated textile products using brown seaweed for healthcare applications

Abstract

Purpose

The healthcare and hygiene textiles are gaining more importance for their eco-friendly and effective antimicrobial properties that have become essential to safeguard human beings from harmful microorganisms. The fabrics finished with chemical-based antimicrobial agents lead to environmental issues and are harmful to human beings. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The present investigation is to develop a fabric with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties using the extracts of brown algae. Antimicrobial property has been imparted to the cotton fabric using microcapsules of brown seaweed extracts using the pad-dry-cure method. The presence of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activities of brown algae extracts was evaluated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging technique, respectively. The total phenolic content of the seaweed extract was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The minimum bactericidal concentration and minimum inhibitory concentration methods were used to determine the antibacterial activity of the bacterial reduction percentage and parallel streak methods were used evaluate the antibacterial activity of seaweed-treated fabrics.

Findings

The methanol fraction of the treated fabric had the highest antioxidant activity (42.5+1.21 per cent), because the higher phenolic content traps the reactive oxygen species and develops the cells present in the skin. The results show that the lower inhibition (250 µg/mL) and bactericidal concentrations (1,000 µg/mL) possess higher antibacterial activity. The results also show that the treated fabric possess higher bacterial reduction of 96 per cent and higher zone of inhibition against Escherichia Coli and Staphylococcus Aureus which was about 35 mm and 40 mm. The air permeability, bending length and the wicking behaviour of the treated fabric were slightly reduced, but it has good bursting strength compared with the untreated fabric.

Originality/value

Such treated fabric is used for making wound dressing, surgical gowns, antibacterial socks and gauze bandage products in healthcare and hygiene textiles.

Citation

Janarthanan, M. and Senthil Kumar, M. (2017), "Novel improvement of bioactive microencapsulated textile products using brown seaweed for healthcare applications", International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 200-214. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCST-03-2016-0023