Development of herbal drug loaded antimicrobial silk suture

Drug loaded antimicrobial silk suture have been developed for use in both wound closure and wound healing with an intention to prevent surgical site infections. The material has been analyzed for various suture properties such as tensile strength, elongation, knot strength, bending properties and diameter. The suture material is coated with chitosan (biopolymer) and incorporated with herbal drug. Cold maceration technique is used to extract Cynodon dactylon drug for the study. SEM reveals the uniform deposition of chitosan on to the surface of the suture material. The polymer and drug coated samples are subjected to FTIR analysis. To optimize the process parameter, response surface method is adopted using Box-Behnken experimental design. The drug loaded samples are also subjected to antimicrobial study (AATCC 100) against S.aureus and E.coli and found to have effective bacterial reduction percentage. Thus, the natural drug loaded suture material would be a better alternative for synthetic drug loaded suture which is found to have some demerits

Effect of enzyme softening of cotton hosiery yarns on knittability and dimensional properties of weft knitted fabrics

241-247Enzyme softening of cotton hosiery ring carded, ring combed and rotor yarns (19.68 tex) has been carried out using commercially available Bio-soft L+ acid type cellulase enzyme at optimized conditions. Knittability of enzyme-softened yarns has been studied and compared with their respective waxed yarns by measuring the actual loop length of knitted fabrics produced under different input tension and by maximum tight structure possible to knit in the given machine. It is observed that the enzyme softening improves the knittability of all three types of yarns to a significant level; the knittability of ring carded yarn improves to the level of ring combed yarn. Enzyme-softened rotor yarn shows the better knittability than enzyme-softened ring carded and combed yarns. The enzyme softening of yarn also increases the dimensional stability of single jersey fabric to a remarkable level. Among the enzyme-softened ring carded, ring combed and rotor yarns, the dimensional stability of ring combed yarn fabric is found to be very good. Changes in mass per unit area and thickness remain almost unaltered after wet relaxation treatments in case of enzyme-softened yarn fabrics

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Not AvailableElectrospinning with various machine configurations is being used to produce polymer nanofibers with different rates of output. The use of polymers with high viscosity and the encapsulation of nanoparticles for achieving functionalities are some of the limitations of the existing methods. A profiled multi-pin electrospinning (PMES) setup is demonstrated in this work that overcomes the limitations in the needle and needleless electrospinning like needle clogging, particle settling, and uncontrolled/uneven Taylor cone formation, the requirement of very high voltage and uncontrolled distribution of nanoparticles in nanofibers. The key feature of the current setup is the use of profiled pin arrangement that aids in the formation of spherical shape polymer droplet and hence ensures uniform Taylor cone formation throughout the fiber production process. With a 10 wt% of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) polymer solution and at an applied voltage of 30 kV, the production rate was observed as 1.690 g/h and average fiber diameter obtained was 160.5 ± 48.9 nm for PVA and 124.9 ± 49.8 nm for Cellulose acetate (CA) respectively. Moreover, the setup also provides the added advantage of using high viscosity polymer solutions in electrospinning. This approach is expected to increase the range of multifunctional electrospun nanofiber applications

Studies on enzymatic hair removal and softening of cotton hosiery yarns

565-572Enzyme softening of ring-spun carded and combed, and rotor-spun yarns of 30s count (19.68 tex) has been carried out using Bio-soft L+ enzyme with the aim of improving their knittabi lity through improvement in yarn hairiness and frictional properties. A central composite rotatable design, proposed by Box and Behnken, was used to conduct experiment for developing mathematical models for the yarn characteristics, such as hairiness, kinetic friction and compression properties, in terms of the variables, namely enzyme concentration, temperature and treatment time. Quasi-Newton numerical method was used to optimize the process variables of enzyme softening treatment and the responses with reduction in hairiness index considered as the objective function. The studies show that the enzyme softening not only results in reduction of hairiness and improvement of frictional coefficients but also leads to improved compressional softness of yarns. Enzyme softening of ring-spun carded yarn results in high level of reduction in hairiness (28%) and kinetic friction (50%). The improvement in compressional softness is pronounced in rotor-spun yarn, while hairiness reduction is predominant in ring-spun yarns. Optimum values for process variables have been mathematically calculated from the experimental results. Optimized conditions for enzyme softening are found to be 2.25-3% (owm) enzyme concentration, 50°C temperature and 50-60 min treatment time

Effect of process parameters on impact strength of short jute fibre reinforced polypropylene composite board

92-95The effect of temperature, pressure and treatment time on impact strength property of short jute fibre reinforced polypropylene composite board has been studied. Composite boards have been prepared from the web by using compression moulding technique. The best impact strength properties are observed if the composite board is manufactured by using low temperature (165<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">°C), pressure (8.13 bar) and treatment time (3 min). The R2 is found to be 0.89. </span

Development of herbal drug loaded antimicrobial silk suture

286-290Drug loaded antimicrobial silk suture have been developed for use in both wound closure and wound healing with an intention to prevent surgical site infections. The material has been analyzed for various suture properties such as tensile strength, elongation, knot strength, bending properties and diameter. The suture material is coated with chitosan (biopolymer) and incorporated with herbal drug. Cold maceration technique is used to extract Cynodon dactylon drug for the study. SEM reveals the uniform deposition of chitosan on to the surface of the suture material. The polymer and drug coated samples are subjected to FTIR analysis. To optimize the process parameter, response surface method is adopted using Box-Behnken experimental design. The drug loaded samples are also subjected to antimicrobial study (AATCC 100) against S.aureus and E.coli and found to have effective bacterial reduction percentage. Thus, the natural drug loaded suture material would be a better alternative for synthetic drug loaded suture which is found to have some demerits

UV protection finishing of textiles using ZnO nanoparticles

267-273 The synthesis and characterization of nanosized zinc oxide particles and their application on cotton and polyester/cotton fabrics have been studied for the protection against UV radiation. The nanoparticles are produced in different conditions of temperature (90° or 150°C) and reaction medium (water or 1,2-ethanediol). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray powder diffractometry have been used to characterize the nanoparticles composition as well as their shape, size and crystallinity. The effectiveness of the treatment is assessed using the standardized tests, such as UV–Vis spectrophotometry and the calculation of the ultraviolet protection factor both before and after washing of the treated samples. It is found that the performance of ZnO nanoparticles as UV-absorbers can be efficiently transferred to fabric materials through the application of ZnO nanoparticles. The UV tests indicate a significant improvement in the UV absorbing activity in the ZnO-treated fabrics</smarttagtype

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Not AvailableThis study was carried out to evaluate the influence of high voltage polarity on a newly designed multi-pin upward electrospinning spinneret to produce poly (vinyl alcohol) nanofibers. Two different high voltage polarity configurations were applied to the spinneret and collector, namely collector charging configuration (configuration-1) and spinneret charging configuration (configuration-2). The outcomes demonstrated that the collector charging configuration is better in case of upward multipin electrospinning setup, to their conservative framework in terms of stable Taylor cone formation, smaller fiber diameter and less bead formation. Electrical field profile in the electrospinning zone was investigated using finite element modelling for both the configurations. No difference in electric field intensity norm (|E|) was observed near the tip of the pins for both the polarities (configurations). Although having the same magnitude, the dominant electrical field component, Ez for configuration -1 is found to be of opposite sign to that of configuration -2. The electrostatic simulations also suggested that all the pins were not at the same potential and that there was a minor difference in pin potentials. Also, optimizations of pin length to reduce the potential differences between the pins were theoretically estimated through COMSOL3D simulation software.Not Availabl