Heritage ethnographic objects – antimicrobial effects of chitosan treatment

Abstract

Chitosan is a natural polymer, which presents, according to studies made up to present, low toxicity and goodbiocompatibility. Recent studies are focused not only on its antimicrobial effects on textiles, because this polysaccharideleads to improvements such as: shrink resistance, dye uptake etc. Two Romanian traditional shirts were non-invasively tested by applying Chitosan and by investigating the SEM images,before and after applying the chitosan. The paper underlines the surface modifications of tested textiles using chitosan.The odd agents on the fibres surfaces were removed and the limitation of the number of microorganisms was observed