Source: The Journal of Textile Association

Abstract

Application of herbals on cotton opens up new avenues for the herbal as well as the textile industry, i.e., clean room fabrics, as herbal-treated garments can be used in medical gowns, operation theater fabric, etc. The application of wound-healing herbals on cotton has a scope in wound healing/wound dressing manufacturing. To analyze and explore the possibility of herbal medicine for bandages and wound dressing, various extracts of the coloring/medicinal substances from different herbs like Amla, Myrobolan, Garlic, Turmeric, Neem, Tulsi, Aloe vera, Henna, Peepal, and Banyan leaves were applied to the cotton fabric, and their evaluation for the antimicrobial property was carried out.

Keywords: Anti-microbial property, Herbal, Medical textile, Wound dressing.

Introduction

The use of herbs to treat disease is almost universal among non-industrialized societies. A number of traditions came to dominate the practice of herbal medicine at the end of the twentieth century, such as:

  • The herbal medicine system, based on Greek and Roman sources
  • The Siddha and Ayurvedic medicine systems from various South Asian countries
  • Chinese herbal medicine (Chinese herbology)
  • Unani-Tibb medicine
  • Shamanic Herbalism

Among the 120 active compounds currently isolated from higher plants and widely used in modern medicine today, 80 percent show a positive correlation between their modern therapeutic use and the traditional use of the plants from which they are derived.

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Originally published in Journal of the Textile Association, Vol. 71 - No.6, March-April 2011

The authors are associated with Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.