Potential of Natural Fibres in Sanitary Napkin

Menstrual hygiene is one of the important points of national as well as global health consideration that needs more attention for appropriate products development at affordable price. In India, the policy makers have included this issue as an important agenda, as far as public health programmes are concerned. Till date fibre-based cloth material is mostly used a significant figure in place of sanitary napkin that sometimes causes many infections. In the resent past, several companies, self-help-groups, entrepreneurs, etc. have been actively engaged in manufacturing the suitable sanitary napkin at affordable price by utilizing the locally and/or nationally available fibrous raw materials or wood pulp in mixing with requisite super-absorbent-polymer (SAP)/materials. The wood pulp used in the sanitary napkin manufacturing is commonly imported, and thus becomes expensive. Attempts have been made to explore the alternative raw materials, particularly plant-based natural-fibres for their application in place of wood-pulp. Plant fibres like cotton, jute, flax, ramie, sisal, hemp, pineapple, sisal and nettle are mostly used in apparel, home and technical textiles. Some of these fibres and a few more viz., cotton fluff, organic cotton, water hyacinth, jute, banana, flax, kenaf, hemp, soya fabric, bamboo fabric, lyocell fibre, milkweed fibre, woollen fabrics and cellulose-acetate nano-fibres have been attempted in producing sanitary napkin (medical textile). Likewise, several attempts have also been directed to use/develop different polymers, as a replacement of super-absorbent-polymer (SAP), which is non-biodegradable in nature. Functional value of such sanitary napkins was further enhanced with aromatic and medicinal plant extracts and summarized in this paper.

• Development of sanitary napkin.

• Natural fibre based sanitary napkin.

• Development of biodegradable napkin.

• Role of plant fibre as an absorbent layer.