Physical properties and antibacterial activity of cotton fabric treated with methanolic extracts of Solanum incanum fruits and red onion peels

Abstract

The objective of this study is to assess the effect of Solanum incanum fruit (SIFE) and red onion peel (ROPE) extracts treatments on cotton fabric properties. The two factor factorial design was used, the first factor is concentration of the methanolic extract with two levels (3 g/l and 5 g/l) and the second is combination of extracts (25:75 SIFE: ROPE; 50:50 SIFE: ROPE; 75:25 SIFE: ROPE, 100% SIFE, 100% ROPE). Each extract was applied separately and in combination of different proportions on cotton fabric by the pad-dry-cure method using citric acid as a cross-linking agent. After treatment, the physical properties antimicrobial, wash durability and structual properties were determined. Air permeability, water absorbency and tensile strength were decreased for the treated fiber compared with control. Among all treatments, the cotton fabric treated with 50:50 combination was found best in bacterial reduction. This study concluded that, the natural source can sucessfully replace with synthetic chemicals.

KEYWORDS:

• Antibacterial activity
• red onion peel extract
• physical properties
• Solanum incanum fruit extract

Acknowledgments

All the authors are thankful to the director, Amhara public health institute for providing the bacterial cultures for this study. In addition, the authors are grateful to Mrs. Tsehaye (Microbiologist) for timely help during bacterial test analysis. Finally, we are thankful to the Dean, Faculty of Chemical and Food Engineering, Bahir Dar institute of technology for providing all the facilities for conducting this experiment successfully.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

Not applicable

Authors contributions

TNG conducted the experimental work under the supervision of SWF who conceive the experiment and procured required materials for the experiments to TNG. DAM provided guidance for carrying the experiments to TNG. NS and SWF were involved in the experimental design and statistical analysis of the experimental data and closely worked with TNG to writing in the manuscript and revision. All the authors are checked and approved the final manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

All the necessary data and materials supporting our findings can be found in the article.