Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

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VIT University

The textile processing and finishing industry is the mainstay for the apparel segment. The textile processing and finishing industry consume an enormous amount of chemicals and release harmful substances to the environment. Therefore rethinking and refinement of the practice adopted and the techniques involved in processing and finishing are very much significant. The consciousness toward environmental protection, pollution control, and user-friendliness are the reasons for emerging trends with sustainable concepts where natural materials, plant ingredients, plant extracts can be used for textile finishing. This review paper discusses the exploratory qualitative study about the natural ingredients, extraction processes, finishing on textiles for various applications, its effects, and results. The applications of textile finishing processes covered in this article are fragrance finish, bio-polishing, bio-stone washing, insect repellent, and UV protection. This article also deals with the various methods of finishing textiles using natural products such as pad-dry-cure, microencapsulation, exhaust method, spraying technique, etc., and its implications. The finishing process using natural products has obtained satisfactory results with various tests for analyzing the properties of textiles after finishing. The critical analysis of this article has revealed that the textile finishing process using natural products seem to be economical, sustainable, have control over environmental and health hazard. © 2020 Taylor &amp; Francis.

Fashion Technology

VIT Fashion Institute of Technology

Chennai Campus

World University root node

Journal of Natural Fibers

Application of Sustainable Textile Finishing Using Natural Biomolecules

Silk fibers are a renewable protein biopolymer, which has the excellent mechanical properties and is also biocompatible. It is not only widely used in the textile industry but is also commonly used in medical applications. As silk fibers possess good biocompatibility and bioresorbability properties they were used in ancient times for biomedical engineering and surgical applications. Using silk fiber as a reinforcement for biopolymers could enhance the stiffness of scaffoldings and bone implants. Being a part of the fibrous protein family, silk possesses great mechanical strength, which in turn makes it suitable for use as a biomaterial. The evolution of silkworm silk started with its biomedical application as sutures for wound treatment. As silk fiber possesses excellent characteristics such as biocompatibility, absent or minimal immunogenicity, limited bacterial adhesion and controllable biodegradability, this natural biopolymer has been found to be appropriate for a variety of biomedical engineering applications. Raw silk fiber consists of silk fibroin, which is coated with a protein glue called sericin. Degumming is a surface modification process for the removal of sericin, which allows for wide control of the silk fiber’s properties, making the silk fiber suitable for use in the development and production of novel biocomposites with required mechanical and biodegradable properties. In the absence of sericin, that is, silk after the process of degumming, it can be employed in implantation and cell culture, as it prevents or allows only minimal inflammation. After the degumming process, silk fibers can be directly structured into three-dimensional frameworks called scaffolds. Following the consideration of the material properties and different architectures for fabrication, this chapter also deals with the biomedical and bioengineering applications of silk. © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.