Investigating the usage of eucalyptus leaves in antibacterial finishing of textiles against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria

Recently, people are sensitive about healthy living and preferring healthy products in all areas including the textile goods. So it is thought that antibacterial textile products will be in demand in this context. For this aim different chemicals can be consumed in the textile industry. But different studies on the use of some different industrial crops have exhibited exciting results. In this study, beyond the known industrial crops and herbal wastes, dried and ground eucalyptus leaves were extracted and used in finishing of wool to color and gain an antibacterial activity. In the finishing process, the liquor ratio was chosen as 1:40 and experiments were carried out with and without mordants. After finishing processes, the samples were evaluated in terms of obtained colors (CIE L*a*b* values) and antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria. Meanwhile, FT-IR and ICP-MS analysis, color fastness, and SEM images of the finished samples were also examined. As a result of these processes, it has been determined that wool fibers can gain antibacterial activities by using eucalyptus leaves and can be colored with this herbal waste. By the addition of mordants, the colors have differed and fabrics gained antibacterial activity against E. coli as well.