Antibacterial performances of silk fabric finished by aloe anthraquinones

Aloe vera rinds rich in anthraquinone ingredients are waste in the field of skin care products. This work describes a novel application of them in the antibacterial treatment of silk. The aloe anthraquinones (AA) was extracted from aloe vera rinds by ultrasonic method. Then the silk fabrics were treated with AA by linkage of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). The results of their color characteristics, surface morphology, elemental analysis, Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR) spectra, the X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) indicated that β-CD and AA were treated on silk fabric successfully. Antibacterial activity and washing stability tests showed that the AA-treated silk fabrics exhibited excellent and durable antibacterial properties. The antibacterial rate of treated fabrics against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were 99.48% and 99.89% and remained higher than 89.14% and 84.18%, respectively, after being washed 30 times. Furthermore, cell compatibility tests results showed that the AA-treated silk fabrics had good biocompatibility.