Pages 471–474
Abstract
Research summary supplied by the authors
Microbial infestation of wet leathers during its storage and transport is major challenge in the tanning industry leading to structural and aesthetic degradation, compromised leather quality, reduced commercial value and reliance on synthetic thiazolebased fungicides. To address these issues, the present work focuses on identifying two fungal pathogens responsible for imparting color and biodetoriating wetblue and the development of an essential oil based antifungal agent to impart antifungal functionality to the leathers. The contaminated wetblue samples were collected from Calcatta Leather Complex, Bantala and the dominant fungal strains responsible for imparting color were isolated under aseptic conditions. Identification was confirmed using morphology and DNA sequencing, revealing the fungi to be Candida palmiloephila P-18 and Candida palmiloephila CBS 7418. For development of the antifungal agent, Citronella oil was encapsulated using silica to form nano/micro-capsules ranging from 100-1000 nm through emulsion polymerization techniques. The product was then characterized for hydrodynamic diameter (DLS), surface charge (Zeta potential), functional groups (FT-IR), thermal stability and loading efficiency (TGA and DSC) and surface morphology (SEM and TEM). The antifungal activity of the encapsulated citronella oil was studied using agar-well diffusion method. The product was applied on the leather and the evaluated for the antifungal activity showed highly pronounced results, depicting complete resistance of growth. Thus, this bio based antifungal product is a better solution to address the problems associated with infestation of unknown pathogenic fungi rather than using conventional fungicides.