BIOACTIVITY AND DERMAL TOXICITY OF SKIN CARE TEXTILES.

The ultimate goal of this study is to obtain antimicrobial textiles, useful in various skin infections with different bacterial strains, due to the unique properties of contained essential oils, such as: antimicrobial and antiinflamatory effects. Four different matrices of biologic active systems in forms of stable emulsions were used in this study, namely: bee wax – essential oil, chitosan – agar – essential oil, xanthan gum – essential oil, xanthan gum – gelatin – essential oil and four different types of essential oils: lavender oil (Lavandula Angustifolia), mint oil (Mentha Piperita), rosemary oil (Rosmarinus Officinalis) and thyme oil (Origanum Onites). After recipes optimization from the point of view of emulsion stability, the selected variants of biologic active systems were tested in vitro, before being impregnated on textiles, in the terms of activity on different bacterial strains involved in various cutaneous infections, such as: Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans. Certain samples were tested also on Escherichia coli, a strain being known to produce wound infections. Emulsions having certain, moderate or even weak antimicrobial activity, were then tested before and after impregnation on textiles from the point of view of dermal toxicity, by using human reconstructed derm, testing protocol In Vitro EpiDerm™ Skin Irritation Test, in order to assess the potential adverse effects on the skin. The values obtained for relative viability highlighted the irritant and non-irritant biologic active systems. This study revealed that the matrices used for the entrapment of the essential oils clearly influence the level of antimicrobial activity, for the same type of essential oils being obtained different size of the inhibition zone. The results allowed the selection of viable bioactive systems from the point of view of antimicrobial activity and the remaining alternatives from the dermal toxicity view point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]