Funcionalização de tecidos de malhas e filmes de quitosana com Ximenia Americana L. para o uso antimicrobiano

Abstract

Currently, the demand for functional textiles, such as fabrics and antimicrobial polymeric films, which are environmentally safer, has been increasing. Thus, chemical compounds that pose risks to the environment and to man can be replaced by natural products. As these products are safe and non-toxic, they are an alternative of great importance especially for textiles in the medical and health fields. Therefore, in view of the various plants used in popular medicine, Ximenia americana L. and chitosan are cited. These substances have the properties of biodegradability, biocompatibility and antibacterial action. The present work aims at the functionalization of knit fabrics and polymeric chitosan films with American ximenia for antimicrobial use. Functionalization in the meshes was performed using two methods: exhaustion (alt) and impregnation (padding). In the process of exhaustion, the mesh remains under agitation in contact with the ximenia extract, and in the impregnation, the fabric passes through pressure rollers so that the extract is forced to penetrate it. The polymeric chitosan films were produced by the solvent evaporation method, known as the solvent casting method. All functionalized materials were characterized by several techniques, namely scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (Tg), color strength, tensile strength, and antimicrobial activity. For polymeric films, measurements of thickness, humidity and opacity were made, in addition to the characterizations already mentioned. Regarding antimicrobial characterization, all functionalized tissues were shown to be bactericidal for Staphylococus aureus bacteria (S. aureus), as they formed inhibition halos, showing that the bacteria did not proliferate. In the chitosan films with ximenia, there were larger halo formations demonstrating that these have better properties. In view of the results, we conclude that functionalization proved to be effective for the purposes of this work, since all textiles (fabrics and films) had a bactericidal character.