Development of sanitary napkins using corn husk fibres in absorbent layer – an exploratory study

Corn husk is an agro waste which poses a problem of its disposal. Hence, fibres were extracted from corn husk to utilize it. The fibres extracted from corn husk were coarse with linear density of 86 deniers, had bundle strength of 1.3 g/d and elongation at break of 18.5%. Water retention of corn husk fibres was also found to be 200%, which makes them suitable as absorbent material. Therefore, the possibility of using corn husk fibres in the absorbent layer of sanitary napkins was explored. Corn husk fibres were mixed with wood pulp in different proportions for use in sanitary napkins. The developed sanitary napkins were evaluated for various physical and hygiene parameters like pH, water retention, absorbency and ability to withstand pressure, disposability, bacterial and fungal bio-burden, and presence of common skin pathogens and compared with other sanitary napkins for all the parameters. The water retention and absorbency of corn husk napkins were comparable to branded napkins, which had higher absorbancy probably due to the presence of SAP in their absorbent layer or difference in the quality of top sheet and technology used to manufacture the napkins. The bacterial and fungal bio-burden for the developed napkins was found to be lowest and within acceptable limits of 1000 c.f.u/ml. The common skin pathogen Staphylococcus aureus and uterine pathogen Candida albicans were found to be absent. Thus, use of corn husk fibres for developing various absorbent hygiene products could be sought as an opportunity for transforming waste to useful products.