Abstract
The cost of sanitary napkins is not affordable for lower income group indeveloping countries like India. Due to unaffordability of sanitary napkins, a largenumber of women suffer from "reproductive tract infections" that is about 70% inIndia. This occurs due to unhygienic menstrual habits of using unsanitized cloth,husk, sand etc. To reduce the cost of product, flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) fibrespinning waste was used as filler material, which was found very absorbent andusable for this purpose. Use of spinning waste fiber for this purpose is a wiseutilization of waste fiber and value addition in the sense of cost reduction.Infection caused by microorganisms is another major challenge of textile materialas natural plant fibers provide room for growth of microorganisms. Sanitary napkinis a sensitive product as it is worn during menstruation. Chemical finishes are notskin and environment friendly, thus, it is needed that the finishing process used forsanitary napkin should be natural. The methenolic extract of Alovera (Aloebarbadensis Miller) gel was used for finishing on filler fiber. The samples oftreated fibers were tested according to standard test methods of AATCC and ENISO. Results according to AATCC 147-2004 shown an average of 7.75, 6.38, 5.38and 4 mm, while according to EN ISO 20645: 2004, the results have shown 7.25,6.75, 6.63 and 4.8 mm zone of inhibition for the samples treated with 100%, 90%,80% and 70% concentrations of gel finish respectively. These results areacceptable for textiles according to corresponding test methods. The treatedsamples of different concentrations were also tested for the determination ofantifungal activity according to AATCC-30: 1993, no growth of fiingi was foundon treated specimens even after three days indicating desirable antifiangal activity.. The developed prototype was tested according to IS: 5405-1980 (Test Method forSanitary Napkin). Based on test results and cost effectiveness, the treatment of70% concentration was used for antibacterial treatments on fibre filler of sanitarynapkins.Aloevera gel treated fibres were converted into the form of filler sheet according tothe given size and shape as given in test method (IS: 1505-1980). The filler sheet isthen transferred into the covering as per test method.The finished product was evaluated for different parameters, given in test method.On the basis of results found, it can be concluded that the developed prototypemeets all the requirements of test methods like absorbency, ability to withstandpressure after absorption, disposability, size, thickness etc. Disposability shows thenon harmful characteristic of prototype to the environment. Comfort relatedfeatures of prototype like softness, flexibility and smoothness were assessedthrough grading done by a group of college going girls. Maximum girls gave 9 to10 points for all three parameters at a scale of 10 marks. The developed prototypeis found better in all the parameters in comparison to commercially availableproducts.
