Wellness textiles: A promising area of textiles

There is a huge potential of wellness textiles in the world as well as in our country, says Arindam Basu.

Functional textiles play an important role in our life. A part of Medical Textiles is commonly known as Cosmeto textiles or Wellness textiles. Cosmeto textiles are textiles embedded with cosmetic ingredients designed to gradually release these substances into the wearer’s skin, providing benefits such as cleansing, perfuming and health enhancement. Active ingredients, like vitamins and fragrances, are typically incorporated through spinning processes or coatings and are released in response to the triggers such as sweat and temperature. As defined by the Textile Industry and Clothing Standards Agency, the cosmeto textiles are textiles that release active ingredients at regular time intervals when in contact with human body.

Textile use in wellness originated in history when medicinal clothing (Ayurvastra) was utilized as a treatment to promote health and cure ailments. Natural antimicrobial coatings on textiles or fabrics have their origins from ancient Egypt (used as mummy wrap), which involved the use of spices and herbs coatings on linen. Chinese people have traditionally utilized bamboo fibres as antimicrobial fabrics.  In 1980s a Japanese company (Tejin Co) manufactured and sold two million of its “Amino Jeans”, by incorporating the amino acid arginine in the fabric for skin rejuvenation efficiency. Presently wellness or cosmeto textiles are produced using modern technological methods to enhance wellbeing through wearable products. The finishing process is crucial in achieving this attribute in these fabrics [1-3].

Market demand

Cosmeto textiles fall mainly under medical textiles and sports textiles. The market size of Medical textiles was valued at $33 -35 billion in 2024 in the World and is projected to reach $47 – 49 billion by 2032 with a CAGR of 4.3 -5.7 per cent. In India during 2023 the market of medical textiles was $1.22 billion and will reach to $1.73 billion in 2028 with CAGR 9 per cent.

The global market size of sports textiles is $50 billion in 2025 and will reach $376 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 6 per cent. In India the size of sports textile market is $0 billion and supposed to reach $19-20 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 15-19 per cent.

The potential for increased usages of wellness textiles is:

• Increased number of ageing people
• Increasing healthcare awareness
• Demand for advanced materials such as antimicrobial, UV resistance, comfortable, biodegradable and other functional properties
• Rise in medical tourism
• Improvement in life style including practicing yoga and other exercises

If we consider even 10 per cent of the sports textiles/ medical textiles will be replaced by these products, the demand will be huge in India (around $2 billion) and the world (around $8 billion).

Production of wellness textiles

The required qualities of the wellness textiles are introduced to the textile products by various means such as applying the ingredients during spinning, by applying as finishing materials, by printing etc.

One of the most popular ways of imparting these qualities is application of microencapsulation techniques [4-9]. The microencapsulation systems offer protection to active ingredient against potential adversities. Micro capsules typically range in size from 1 to 1000 micrometer and comprise a core and a surrounding wall. The core contains the active ingredient responsible for the functional finish, while the wall protects this from factors such as oxidation, evaporation and other environmental stresses, thereby, enhancing the durability of the functionalization. Several techniques such as in situ polymerization, ionotropic gelation, spray drying and simple or complex coacervation, are employed in the synthesis of the microencapsulation. Micro capsules are widely utilized in the development of bio-functional textile materials that serve as carriers for cosmetic or pharmaceutical substances embedded within their structure.

Bio-functional textiles, can be regarded as type of dermo-cosmetic products as well, since they represent a matrix for the intersection between cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. These products may contain active ingredients that act on the skin barrier, promote skin health and provide long lasting effects on skin appearance. Dermo-composites are found in various products, including moisturizers, retinoids, antioxidants, depigmenting agents, sunscreens, and formulations with antibacterial, inflammatory and anti-ageing properties.

Bio-functional textiles can act as carriers for cosmetic or medicinal substances embedded within their structure, allowing controlled release of active ingredients upon skin contact. Alternatively, they can absorb substances from the skin, Upon, contact with the dermis these textiles can enhance the skins appearance by delaying the effects of ageing, providing anti-cellulite benefits, treat fungal infections, or even release fragrances or oils.

In another study micro capsules based on renewable materials and containing perfume were designed for cosmeto-textile applications. Such micro capsules contained the neroline fragrance as core material and biobased polyurethane as wall material. Micro capsules of spherical shape and with diameter of 27 micrometer consisted of alignil core and a polymer wall. The polyamide knitting finished and micro capsules slowly released its active ingredients and neroline remained until twenty washing cycles.

Essential oils in textiles have emerged as a promising approach in application through microencapsulation owing to their natural composition and multifunctional properties, such as antimicrobial, antioxidant and aromatherapeutic effects. Lemon grass (Cymbopogon species) essential oil, which is rich in bioactive compounds such as cital is well known for its potent anti-microbial and insect repellent properties. In several nations, including China and Indonesia, the oil has been proven to be effective in treating rashes, infections and other health concerns. A number of studies proven the positive impact of application of these microcapsules on textile products. Aromatherapy by using this technique has shown that aromatherapy can reduce the exam anxiety in nursing students. Another study shown the synergistic effect of henna and betel leaf, while applied on silk fabrics, towards improved germicidal activity. Besides the satisfactory moisture management profile conferred thermal comfort properties of dyed silk worn in hot and moist environment.

A study shows that using of cinnamon bark (Dalchini) and Garcia indica (Kokum) on fabrics by microencapsulation improved antibacterial properties of the fabrics. The major drawback of the treatment of fabrics using microencapsulation that it lacks washing fastness properties. In most of the cases they can hardly withstand up to 20 washing cycles. Though the microencapsulation process is better than normal finishing processes, its demerits are its not so good washing fastness.

Following table includes the materials are generally used to impart wellness properties:

Caption for the table: Table 1: Environmentally friendly finishes and their effects

Nano finishes	Effects
Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Squalene, TiO2	Moisterizing
Vitamin E, Plant extract from Coffee, cocoa and cinamon	Anti-ageing
Isoflarones from Soybean, Phenols from Olive oil, Polyphenol from grapes. tea	Antioxidation
Aloe vera modified ZnO	UV resistance and self cleaning
Lemon grass essential oil	Moisture control, UV protection, antimicrobial activity
Menthol, ginger, orange, rosemary	Vitalizing, Relaxing and refreshing, aromatherapeutic
Silver NP and Chitosan	Antimicrobial
Magnifera  indica tea bark extract	Antimicrobial
Zinc oxide	UV shielding and solar reflection

Application of nanotechnology

The word ‘nano’ is derived from the Greek word “nanos”, which means dwarf i.e. a small or insignificant entity in comparison. Nanotechnology deals with the particles that have a smaller size than 100nm. The properties of a particle drastically changes when its size reduces in the nanometer scale. As the diameter decreases, specific surface area of the particle increases, which increases the more accessible surface area of the active agent particles. It has been demonstrated in recent years that nanotechnology (NT) can be used to enhance textile attributes, such as fabric softness, durability, breathability, water repellency, fire retardancy and antimicrobial properties. Today the technology that deals with the dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nm (1 billion nm = 1m) in length is called NT. At the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), NT is defined as the understanding, manipulation, and control of the matter at the above stated length scale, such that the physical, chemical and biological properties of the materials (individual atoms, molecules and bulk matter) can be engineered, synthesized or altered to develop the next generations of improved materials, devices, structures and systems. Nano science and nanotechnology provide many opportunities for product development, promising a better future of textile industries. Predominantly cotton fabrics may efficiently be made fire retardant, shrink proof, crease resistant, water and stain resistant and even water repellent, while still maintaining the cotton’s well admired excellent comfort properties.

Adding active nanoparticles to textiles is a creative and practical method of achieving persistent antibacterial activity without sacrificing the fabric comfort, breathability or appearance. Nanoparticles have strong antibacterial properties of wide range of microorganisms, because of their distinct size, large surface area and reactivity. These can be used in sports textiles, medical textiles and protective textiles. In a study nano Ag/TiO2 inorganic antibacterial powder was selected to finish cotton fabric and a kind of cotton fabric with antibacterial function was studied which can not only be used as sports clothing fabric, but also widely used as a medical substrate. For natural fibres, since functional powder cannot be added in the fibre production process, only post processing methods can be used. Processing techniques include exhaustion method, padding method and coating method. A study highlighted the promising potential of integrating nanoparticles such as silver (Ag), copper (Cu) and zinc oxide (ZnO) into natural fabrics like silk, cotton and wool, offering enhanced functionalities such as antimicrobial properties, UV protection and improved durability.

A self-cleaning and UV protective clothing was developed on cellulose fabric via the green in situ synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles and subsequent modification with stearic acid. The self-cleaning effect of the fabric was attributed to its superhydrophobic, water repellency induced particulate removal and antibacterial properties. The fabric exhibited good washing durability and excellent UV protection, even with prolonged sun exposure.

Conclusions

The world is facing lot of problems including environmental problems such as air pollution, water pollution and impurity in foods etc. These have increased the health problems for people especially residing in bigger cities. To mitigate these wellness textiles can help maintain good health for people without making lot of efforts. The article discussed about the various wellness textile products with effects such as antibacterial, UV ray resistance, anti-ageing, good moisture management, protection against skin problems, aroma therapeutic etc. There is a huge potential of wellness textiles in the world as well as in our country.

References:

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About the author:

Dr Arindam Basu, a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of Textile Association, Institution of Engineers, and Society for Applied Biotechnology, has obtained his Ph.D. in Textile Engineering from University of Leeds, England. After retirement as Director General of NITRA after 11+ years tenure, he has co-founded a company namely Nattex Sols Private Limited to promote natural, biodegradable, environmentally friendly fibres and technologies. Before NITRA’s stunt he worked as Director of SITRA, Coimbatore and CSTRI, Central Silk Board, Bangalore. He has published around 25 books and chapters and published more than 175 research papers in International and national journals