Application of traditional medicines on textiles
Creators: name: Swarup, Ashish
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: As science and technology has developed, the manner by which drugs can be delivered has grown. This research explores an alternative method for the delivery of therapeutic compounds to the body. The basis of the study involves the application of traditional medicines on textiles.<br><br>Boswellia Serrata Extract (B.S.E.) is a common traditional medicine used for curing body pains. The most common form of B.S.E. based products are creams that are applied directly to the skin. Experiments show that these creams were not suitable as a basis for applying to textile materials because the creams contain highly volatile compounds, which on drying the treated textile, post application, cause almost total loss of the B.S.E. The approach used was the application on textiles of a 'commercial' topical medicine applied as a cream for, where B.S.E. is a major constituent. Cotton woven fabric was padded with this cream and tested for washing and rubbing fastness. The presence of highly volatile substances in the topical cream resulted in a negligible amount of the medicine on the dried treated fabric.<br><br>Another approach was used for the application of B.S.E. onto the textile substrate. A commercially available B.S.E. powder was applied to woven fabric using a pad mangle. Tests were carried out to validate the 'take-up' of the B.S.E. powder on the woven cotton fabric and to measure the wash fatness and rubbing fastness of the padded fabric. The aim was to assess the possibility of using the padded fabric for assembly into a garment, also assessing was whether the garment could withstand laundering and retain the B.S.E. for transdermal permeability in addition, a test was conducted to measure the amount of B.S.E. transferred from padded fabric to the simulated skin over a specified span of time. Due to ethics involvement, the tests were not conducted on humans or animals, but rather an alternative method was devised to evaluate the transfer of material from woven fabric to the skin surface. Leather was used in the evaluation of dermal transfer of B.S.E. Other tests completed were conducted on Perkin Elmer Spe ctrum 2000 FTIR Spectrum and ESEM on FEI Quanta 200.<br><br>Due to low wash and rubbing fastness values on the apparel fabrics and negligible transfer of B.S.E. powder from the treated fabric surface to the skin surface, an alternative approach was followed. The B.S.E. powder was coated on polyester viscose blended non-woven fabric. Using coated fabrics as patches that do not require washing fastness make them easy to use. The effectiveness of the dermal transfer was assessed using rubbing fastness, scanning electron microscopy and FTIR Spectroscopy.<br><br>This thesis has shown that the effective approach for using a textile fabric as a medium for applying B.S.E. to the skin is coating on non-woven material that can be used in patch form. The application of B.S.E. on woven fabric results in low solid add-on on the fabric, and increases the stiffness of fabric resulting in unsuitability of the finished woven fabric for garment construction.<br>