International Conference on Advances in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences (ICABPS'2011) Bangkok Dec.
, 2011
Studies on Antimicrobial Textile Finish Using
Certain Plant Natural Products
S.Mahesh, A.H.Manjunatha Reddy and G.Vijaya Kumar
Abstract—The comprehensive focus on plant based natural dyes
and other bioactive natural extract in textile coating as antimicrobial
textile finish has gained significant momentum. The major
antimicrobial agents for textile coating are chemical agents which
have toxic and environmental issues. Several natural dyes obtained
from plants exhibit strong antimicrobial properties. Therefore,
coating of antimicrobial plant natural dyes and bioactive plant
extract on to cotton fabrics is an emerging technology in the
production of medical cloths. In the present study, Pomegranate rind
extract coated on cotton fabric was found to be effective as
antimicrobial finishing of textile, followed by neem and turmeric.
Plant natural dyes and other products have been coated on to cotton
fabrics using suitable mordants. Among various methods tested
exhaust coating was found to be more effective than dip coating. The
pomegranate, neem and turmeric extracts coated on fabrics exhibit
more antimicrobial efficiency on gram negative bacteria than gram
positive bacteria. Present studies prove that several plant extract
could be effective against both gram positive and gram negative
bacteria depending on the type of components present in the plant
extract. The 5 % plant extract prepared from rind and leaves of
Pomegranate and neem shows effective antibacterial property after
coating to fabric in terms of reduction in number of microorganisms.
The inhibitory effects coated fabric was tested for one way ANOVA
and depicted variations for among Bacillus cerius. The plant extract
tested for Escherichia coli shows insignificant to The pomegranate
rind is a waste biomass and it can be efficiently used as an
antimicrobial agent for the preparation of antimicrobial textile finish
particularly for medical cloths. This study investigated the
antimicrobial functionality of cotton fabrics coated with plant natural
dyes and extract as value added textile product.
Keywords— Mordants, Pomegranate, Antimicrobial, Exhaust,
dye.
I. INTRODUCTION
R ECENTLY, there has been upsurge interest in apparel
technology all over the world for much demanding
functionality of the products like wrinkle resistance, water
repelling, fade resistance and resistance to microbial invasion.
Among these, development of antimicrobial textile finish is
highly indispensable and relevant since garments are in direct
S.Mahesh is in Department of Biotechnology, R.V. College of Engineering
RV Vidyaniketan Post, Mysore Road, Bangalore – 560059 (e-mail:
dr_mahesh30@yahoo.co.in (9980819835))
A.H.Manjunatha Reddy is in Department of Biotechnology, R.V. College
of Engineering RV Vidyaniketan Post, Mysore Road, Bangalore – 560059(e-
mail:ahmreddy@gmail.com)
G.Vijaya Kumar is in Department of Biotechnology, R.V. College of
Engineering RV Vidyaniketan Post, Mysore Road, Bangalore – 560059(e-
mail: vijaykumar.aug71@gmail.com)
253
contact with human body (Sathianarayanan et al 2010).
Cotton fabrics provide ideal environment for microbial
growth. Several challenges have been created for apparel
researchers due to increasing global demand in textile.
Therefore, textile finishes with added value particularly for
medical cloths are greatly appreciated and there is an
increasing demand on global scale. The consumers are aware
of hygienic life style and there is a necessity of textile product
with antimicrobial properties. Several antimicrobial agents
viz., triclosan, quarternay ammonium compounds and recently
nanosilver are available for textile finishing (Thilagavathi and
Kannaian 2010). However, due to their cost and synthetic in
nature which creates environmental problems, natural dyes in
textile coloration are gaining significant momentum (Lee et al
2009). This new line of interest is due to stringent
environmental standards imposed by many countries due to
the usage of synthetic dyes which causes allergic reaction and
toxicity. Greater interest has emerged in the field of apparel
technology using natural colorants, on account of their
compatibility with deodorising properties (Lee et al 2009).
Comprehensive literature is available on natural dyes obtained
from plants (Anthony and Dweck 2009).
India has rich biodiversity and there are more than 450
plants yielding dyes and pigments. Many of these plants used
for dye extraction are classified as medicinal and some of
these have recently been shown to exhibit antimicrobial
activity (Changaiah et al 2010). All of the naturally available
dyes are environmental friendly (Siva 2007). Therefore, it is
indispensible to need more investigation in the development
of eco-friendly antibacterial agents extracted from plants for
textile applications. The effect of various plant extract on
bacteria and fungi has been studied by number of researchers
(Liolious et al 2007, Pereira et al 2007, Jasso, et al 2007).
Although certain natural antibacterial agents are available at
present, only few studies have been explored for their
antibacterial activity on textile materials and also requires
progressive and consolidated data on antimicrobial finished
product of textiles particularly in the preparation of medical
cloths.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The leaves of neem (Azadiracta indica), fruit rind of
pomegranate (Punica granatum) and rhizome of turmeric
(Curcuma longa) were selected for extracting natural products
to fabrics.
 International Conference on Advances in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences (ICABPS'2011) Bangkok Dec., 2011
The air dried leaves of neem plants was made into fine
powder by grinding and followed by mixing with methanol at
room temperature in the ratio of 1:5 in a beaker. The beaker
was left closed for 3 days so that the methanol takes in the
active components of the leaves. After 3 days, the methanol
was allowed to evaporate, to get the residue at the bottom.
The pomegranate rind was collected and washed with water
and then dried at 50° C. The dried rind was finally powdered
and used for dye extraction using methanol. The extract was
filtered and concentrated by evaporating the solvent.
Similarly, dried turmeric powder was filtered, and extraction
was followed with similar method.
A. Preparation of cotton fabric for coating
The cotton fabric was collected from nearby textile mill and
was pretreated by caustic boil method. The fabric was washed
in hot water with Na 2 CO 3. The 5.05 gm of cotton fabric (2.2
inch) was washed with 0.3155 gm of Na 2 CO 3 . The beaker
was placed in water bath and brought the water to boil, with
continues stirring for every 15 minutes. The fabrics were
recovered and dried.
The scored fabric was bleached by treating with 2gm of
ascorbic acid and 3ml of sodium hypochlorite in 200ml of
water and maintained at 90°C for 10 min. The fabric was dried
and washed in sterile water. It was then dried for dyeing
process.
B. Fabric Coating:
The exhaust method was followed for coating fabric. The
fabric was mordated prior to dyeing with acetic acid. The
mordant was 5% on weight of the fabric (250 µl of acetic acid
for 5.05gm cotton fabric) and the liquor ration was 1: 40. The
treated fabric was introduced to the plant extracted solution of
3% and 5% of pomegranate, turmeric and neem and
maintained at 50 - 55°C for 45 minute.
III. ANTIBACTERIAL FINISHES OF TEXTILE
A. Quantitative test (AATCC -100):
The antibacterial effectiveness of treated fabrics by plant
dyes or extracts are carried out by standard test method
AATCC -100. The cotton fabric of 2.2 inch was treated in3%
and 5% of pomegranate, neem and turmeric extract. The fresh
culture of Escherichia coli and Bacillus cereus were
inoculated to sterilized broth followed by the transfer of
treated fabric sample. These were incubated at 30°C for 24 hrs
in shaker at 120 rpm. The absorbency was checked at 600nm
with sterilized LB medium as blank. The fabrics were
analyzed for their antibacterial durability after repeated wash
with standard soap. The fabric sample was placed in soap
solution in a beaker with continuous stirring maintained at
40°C for 10min. These were then washed with distilled water
and dried. The sample was again tested for antibacterial
assessment. The same procedure was followed for 5 wash.
B. Qualitative test (AATCC-147):
In qualitative test, disc diffusion method was followed.
254
Approximately 25 mg of plant extract was dissolved in 100 µl
sterile water. The sample of 10, 25 50 and 100 µl was slowly
impregnated drop wise on 5mm sterile Whatmann paper disc
and also to cotton fabric. The treated samples were placed in
intimate contact with agar, which was previously inoculated
with overnight culture of E. coli. and B. cereus and incubated
at 37°C for 2-3 days. The zone of inhibition was evaluated.
IV. RESULTS
A. Antimicrobial Finish of Textile
The yield of methanolic extract of pomegranate, neem, and
turmeric was found to be 42%, 38% and 29% respectively.
The antibacterial property of fruit rind of pomegranate was
evidenced in E. coli (Fig 1) and B. cereus (Fig 2) after
coating on cotton fabric. For coating, the exhaust method was
found to be effective and suitable than dip coating method.
The binding of plant natural products with or without mordant
dependent on the type of dye coating methods used on fabrics.
The methanolic natural extract obtained from the pomegranate
rind, turmeric root and neem leaves were coated on cotton
fabrics and subjected for quantitative and qualitative
antibacterial analysis. According to quantitative
test,pomegranate coated fabric (Graph 1- 88.24%) shows
higher bacterial reduction than neem (Graph 2- 46.65%) and
turmeric (Graph 3 - 41.89%). In qualitative test , all the
concentration of pomogranate coated fabric exhibit
antibacterial activity based on zone of inhibition for E. coli (
Fig 1) and B. cereus ( Fig 2).
B. Wash Durability of Antimicrobial Finished Textile:
The treated fabrics are found to have wash durability up to
5 wash. In the case of pomogranate treated fabric, in each
wash cycle the antibacterial activity decreases gradually and
evidenced at the end of 5th wash cycle (Table 1) the
percentage reduction value reaches to 33.23% and 24.31% for
gram negative and gram positive bacteria respectively. The
same trend has also been noticed for neem (Table 2) and
turmeric (Table 3). The values of percentage of inhibition
were subjected to one way ANOVA test to understand the
variations of the average values observed during the study
(Table 4).
V. DISCUSSION
A. Antimicrobial Finish of Textile:
The present study reveals the antimicrobial efficiency of
pomogranate rind extract coated to fabric. The antibacterial
properties of fruits of pomegranate have been documented
(Machado et al 2002, Reddy et al 2007, Joshi et al 2009 and
Chengaiah et al 2010). The pomegranate fruit rind contains
large amount of tannins. The antibacterial property of
pomegranate fruit rind coated in the present context can be
attributed to presence of tannins and other soluble pigments.
This is in conformation with only earlier report on
pomegranate and tulsi leaf(Sathianarayanan et al 2010) as
 International Conference on Advances in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences (ICABPS'2011) Bangkok Dec., 2011
effective agent in antimicrobial textile finish. Moreover,
pomegranate fruit rind is a waste biomass and it can be
efficiently used as waste biomass as an effective antibacterial
coating of medical cloths.
The pomegranate and turmeric extract coated on fabrics
exhibit antibacterial efficiency on gram negative bacteria
(Table 1 to 3) than gram positive bacteria. These results are
contradictory to several earlier reports on the antibacterial
efficiency of plant extract on gram positive bacteria (Paz et al
1995, Kudi et al 1999, & Palomba and Semple 2001).
Thilagavathi and Kannaian (2010) reported that
microencapsulated geranium extract treated fabrics showed
antimicrobial efficiency against both Serratia aureus and
Escherichia coli. However, the S. aureus is more sensitive to
geranium extract when compared to E. coli and they are of the
opinion that the gram positive bacteria are more susceptible to
natural herbal extract compared to gram negative bacteria.
However, present studies shows that several plant extract
could be effective against both gram positive and gram
negative bacteria depending on the type of components
present in the plant extract. Therefore, the present studies
proves that natural plant extract coated on the fabric could be
effective against gram negative bacteria and to some extent
gram positive bacteria which are normally present on the
cloths (Lee et al 2009). This is particularly significant in the
environment containing both the types of organism and
highlighted the essentialities of the eco-friendly coating of
natural plant extract on medical cloths. One way ANOVA was
calculated among the plant extracts and antimicrobial
activities. The results of ANOVA test, divulge the variations
of effectiveness of the antimicrobial property with different
plant extracts. All the plant extracts have showed insignificant
to ANOVA revealing the steady rate of inhibition (Table 5).
When the bacterial inhibition effects of coated fabric was
tested for one way ANOVA depicted variation among the
Bacillus cereus with Pomegranate rind extract coated fabric
and also with other two plants.
Although, turmeric posseses antibacterial agent due to
curcumin content, its antibacterial effect on coated fabric is
less sensitive when compared to pomegranate. This may be
due to the stability of curcumin on coated fabric or still
require improvised coating technique like microencapsulation
etc.
VI. CONCLUSION
The coating of cotton fabric using plant natural products
was found to exhibit antibacterial properties. The fruit rind of
pomegranate, as an efficient waste biomass, exhibits efficient
antimicrobial agent for the preparation of antimicrobial finish
of medical cloths. The antibacterial efficacy of neem and
255
turmeric coated fabric was found to be less efficient
compared to pomogranate may be due to thier binding
properties.The present investigation highlighted that coated
fabric shows antibacterial properties against gram negative
bacteria contrary to the earlier reports on the efficiency of
plant extract on gram positive bacteria indicating that this
technique can be used in the textile industry as antimicrobial
finish of medical cloths both for gram positive and gram
negative bacteria as value added products.
REFERENCES
[1] Anthonoy C and Dweck C (2008) Comprehensive focus on natural dyes.
Colour Cosmetic. 57-69.
[2] Chengaiah K , Mallikatjuna Rao K , Mahesh Kumar K ,
Alagusundarum M C, Madhusudhana Chetty (2010) Medicinal
importance of naural dyes – A revie., International Journal of Pharm
Tech Researc., 2, 144-154.
[3] Jasso De Rodrigiez D H , Castilo JL , Sanchez , Garcia JA Quiinanilla
RH Lira (2007) Antifungal activity in vitro of flourensia sp. extracts on
Alternaria sp. Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum. Indian
Crops Products. 25, 111-116.
[4] Joshi MS , Wazed Ali R. ,Purwar (2009) Ecofriendly antimicrobial
finishing of textiles using bioactive agents based natural products. Indian
Journal Fibre and Textile Research. 34, 295- 304.
[5] Kudi AC, Uhoh JU, Eduvie LO and Gefu (1999) Screening of some
Nigerian medicinal plants for antibacterial activity. Journal of
Ethnopharmacol. 62, 225-228.
[6] Lee LH , Hwang E H , Kim (2009) Colorimetric assay and antimicrobial
activity of cotton, silk and fabrics dyed with Peony, Clove, Coptis
chinensis and Gallnut. Materials. 2, 10- 21.
[7] Liolious C , Laouer CH , Boulaacheb N O. Gortzi C and Ioanna (2007)
Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of
Algerian Phlomins Bover DeNoe subp.bovei. Molecules. 12, 772- 781.
[8] Machado T , Leal ICR , Amaral ACF , Santos KRN, Silva MG Kuster
RM (2002) Antimicrobial Ellia gitannin of Punica granatum fruits.
Journal of Brazilian Chemical Society. 13(5), 606- 610.
[9] Palomba EA and Semple SJ (2001) Antibacterial activity of traditional
Australian medicinal plants. Journal of Ethnopharmacol. 77,151- 157.
[10] Paz EA , Cerdeiras MP , Fernadez F , Ferrira P , Moyna A. Vazquez S ,
Vero and Zunino (1995) Screening of Uruguayan medicinal plants for
antimicrobial activity. Journal of Ethnopharmacol. 67, 225- 228.
[11] Pereira AP (2007) Phenolic compounds and antimicrobial activity of
olive ( Olea europaea L Cv Cobrancosa ) leaves. Molecules. 12, 1153-
1162.
[12] Reddy MK, Gupt SK , Jacob MR , Khan SL and Ferreira (2007)
Antioxidant, antimalarial and antimicrobial activities of tannin rich
fractions, ellagitannins and phenolic acids from Punica granatum L.
Planta Medica 73, 461-467.
[13] Sathianarayanan MP, Bhat NV, Kokate VE and Walunj (2010)
Antibacterial finish for cotton fabric from herbal products. Indian
Journal Fibre and Textile Research. 35, 50-58.
[14] Siva R.(2007) Status of natural dyes and dye – yielding plants in India.
Current Science. 92, (7), 916- 919.
[15] Thilagavathi G and Kannaian T (2010) Combined antimicrobial and
aroma finishing treatment for cotton, using microencapsulated geranium
(Pelargonium graveolens L.) leaves extract. Indian Jounal of Natural
Products and Resources. 1(3), 348- 352.
International Conference on Advances in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences (ICABPS'2011) Bangkok Dec., 2011

A
B
A B
A

D C
D C
B A

Fig: 1 Zone of inhibition (Esherichia coli) by
Pomogranate coated fabric
Note: Various concentration of pomegranate
rind extract ,A (10µl,) B (25 µl) C (50 µl) and
D( 100 µl) of 5% extract coated fabric showing
bactericidal property respectively
Fig: 2 Zone of inhibition (Bacillus cereus) by
Pomogranate coated fabric
Note: Various concentration of pomegranate rind
extract ,A (10µl,) B (25 µl) C (50 µl) and D( 100 µl)
of 5% extract coated fabric showing bactericidal
property respectively

TABLE I
PERCENTAGE EFFECTIVENESS OF POMEGRANATE RIND EXTRACT COATED FABRIC:
Escherichia. Bacillus cereus
SAMPLE li
3% dye 5% dye 3% dye fabric 5% dye fabric
fabric fabric
Without 62.83 82.42 36.39 46.049
wash
1s t wash 40.51 57.03 17.14 25.35
nd
2 wash 11.23 14.61 11.07 13.47
3rd wash 8.62 9.75 10.05 7.23
th
4 wash 7.51 8.97 7.54 7.01
5th wash 7.42 5.42 3.21 5.23

TABLE II
PERCENTAGE EFFECTIVENESS OF NEEM LEAVES EXTRACT COATED FABRIC:
Escherichia. coli Bacillus
SAMPLE
3% dye 5% dye 3% dye 5% dye
fabric fabric fabric fabric
Without 30.66 39.77 31.55 41.89
wash
1s t wash 11.93 15.49 20.862 25.92
nd
2 wash 10.48 15.01 18.04 20. 91
rd
3 wash 10.21 13.75 11.18 13.31
th
4 wash 9.51 11.28 11.02 8.32
th
5 wash 9.02 11.92 5.93 8.49

256
 International Conference on Advances in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences (ICABPS'2011) Bangkok Dec., 2011

TABLE III
PERCENTAGE EFFECTIVENESS OF TURMERIC ROOT COATED FABRIC:
Escherichia coli Bacillus cereus
SAMPLE
3% dye 5% dye 3% dye 5% dye
fabric fabric fabric fabric
Without 37.48 46.65 22.89 28.76
wash
1s t wash 13.93 17.49 11.09 15.92
nd
2 wash 10.48 17.03 10.04 14.99
rd
3 wash 6.72 11.84 7.34 15.02
4th wash 6.54 9.30 6.92 8.20
rh
5 wash 13.21 9..75 7.02 8.13

TABLE IV
ANOVA RESULTS OF PERCENTAGE EFFECTIVENESS OF VARIOUS COATED FABRICS:
Plant extracts F P
Pomegranate rind
extract 0.447 0.72308
Neem leaves extract 0.902 0.46165
Turmeric root extract 1.863 0.17659

TABLE V
ANOVA RESULTS OF ANTIBACTERIAL EFFECTIVENESS
E.coli B. cereus
Plant extracts F P F P
Pomegranate rind 0.6804 0.00971
extract 0.1825 4 11.389 *
0.6639
Neem leaves extract 0.2034 5 1.4404 0.26440
0.0775
Turmeric root extract 4.0973 5 0.2963 0.49627
* Significant values

Number of washes
257
International Conference on Advances in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Sciences (ICABPS'2011) Bangkok Dec., 2011

Graph 1: Effect of pomegranate rind extract ( 5%) coated fabric.

Number of washes

Graph 2: Effect of Neem leaf extract ( 5%) coated fabric.

Number of washes

Graph 3: Effect of Turmeric extract ( 5%) coated fabric.

258