Safety, efficacy, and wash effects of textiles treated with green antimicrobial Vikang99

This study investigates the application of Vikang99, a green antimicrobial agent from food waste, on textiles to mitigate bacterial contamination. Toxicological evaluation conducted on rats revealed no adverse effects up to a dosage of 1000 mg/kg/day, indicating the agent’s high safety profile for widespread use. The antibacterial test on Vikang99 achieved a log10 reduction of 5.70–7.26 in 5 min for five common bacterial strains: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium), and Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium). Vikang99 was also effective against three AMR bacteria strains, reaching a 5.60 log10 reduction for ESBLKlebsiella pneumoniae. Vikang99 was coated on cotton textiles in two different concentrations. AATCC-100 was utilized to quantitatively study the coated fabrics’ antibacterial properties. For samples coated with the as-prepared solution, the log10 reduction was 6 for both E. coli and S. aureus. For samples coated with the 10-times dilution, the log10 reduction was 2.7 for S. aureus and 3.1 for E. coli. The washing studies showed the treated samples retained over 98.5% antibacterial efficacy even after 20 wash cycles. Scanning electron microscopy was performed on uncoated and coated fabric, indicating the durability of Vikang99 on the textile fabrics.