STUDY ON ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF ORGANIC COTTON FABRIC TREATED WITH MICROENCAPSULATED HERBAL EXTRACT
Today the customers are increasingly aware of the health and hygienic lifestyle. Both good and bad microbes are present everywhere, including our skin flora. Textiles being more vulnerable to microbial attack would cause cross infection, transfer of diseases, allergic reactions and odour upon human beings due to infestation by microbes. In order to overcome such bad effects antimicrobial finishes are needed to apply on the textile materials. Therefore research an environment friendly antimicrobial agents based on natural products for the textile application is gaining worldwide interest. An attempt has been made through this research work to develop medicinal herb extracts treated fabric. Numerous plants have been screened for antimicrobial properties. In this work medicinal herb such as Green tea (Camellia sinensis), Neem leaf (Azadirachata indica) and Aero root (Maranta arundinacea) have been selected for finishing hundred percent Organic cotton fabric using exhaust method. The finished fabrics have been tested for its antibacterial activity using standard test method ENISO 20645(Qualitative) & AATCC 100-2004 (Quantitative), to enhance the durability of the finished fabric, microencapsulation of the herbal extracts are performed with different concentration and the results showed good efficacy against microorganisms which can be used for pregnant women