Volume : 3, Issue : 5, May - 2014

Allergenic Testing of Hygiene Fabrics Treated With Herbal Antimicrobials

Anjali Sood, Dr. Krishna Khambra, Dr. Neelam M. Rose

Abstract :

Some of the chemicals used in textiles including chemical additives used in faic processing can cause allergic reactions. As all these products are in direct contact with the skin, these are required to be non–allergenic. Plant extracts can be used as alternative textile finishing agents, but should be non–allergenic to skin. Hence the tests were conducted on covering faics of sanitary napkins treated with natural antimicrobial agents viz. Eucalyptus citriodora, Pinus roxburghii and Woodfordia fructicosa for allergy through skin patch test on healthy volunteers to assess the usability of the functional clothing. The untreated control & treated polypropylene and polyester faic samples were examined for allergic potential through patch sensitivity tests on 30 healthy volunteers by placing test samples of size 1” x1” each against their skin for 48 hours with hypoallergenic paper tape. No reaction was observed on all volunteers, which implies that selected plant extracts can be used in intimate contact with human skin.