TREATMENT OF WOOL FIBRES WITH GARLIC STEMS AND INVESTIGATION OF THEIR ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES

Today it can be told that the use of natural substances has gained importance with the health awareness and environmental consciousness that people have in mind. So treatment of a natural fiber with a natural source to gain an antibacterial efficiency has been examined in this study. For this aim, experiments were carried out for originally colored and white/ecru wool fibers after scouring of them. These fibers were then treated with the extracts of garlic stems and also zinc chloride to ensure an antibacterial efficiency. It was also aimed to save the original colors of the wool fibers. So firstly the effects of treatments were evaluated in terms of color changes in the wool fibers. In addition, the antibacterial properties of the treated wool fibers against two bacteria species, gram negative and gram positive were investigated too. It was observed that zinc based treatment have ensured significant antibacterial efficiencies against tested bacteria however the antibacterial effects of garlic stem extracts based treated wool fibers were limited. It was seen that treatment of wool fibers with garlic stem extracts caused no antibacterial efficiencies against E. coli but somewhat antibacterial efficiencies against S. aureus.