Revolutionizing Feminine Hygiene: Banana Fibre Sanitary Napkins

Abstract ” Women all around the world use sanitary napkins for menstrual protection. In India, only small percentage of women uses sanitary napkin s. The main reason for such a low number relates to the affordability of the people. Sanitary napkins that are available now are non -biodegradable and also cause severe infections there by affecting women's health. To overcome this challenge, sanitary bio napkins are made from natural materials. In the present study, naturally available cheap materials like banana fiber and cotton which are easily available, biodegradable and cost effective were used.

Another advantage of using the natural materials was the ir characteristics like porosity and retention of fluid for a longer time. The results indicated that the napkins are ecofriendly and it shows no negative effects to women around the village. Keywords ”Biodegradable, Bio napkins, Banana fibers I. INTRODUCTION Nowadays everybody is concerned with creating the eco - friendly environment by reducing the environmental problems and nature pollution. Besides , health and hygiene is also very much important for human beings.

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The utmost pollutions are from textile industr y, dye industry and healthcare industry [2]. Among these, healthcare wastes are the major pollution that will create deliberate complications to the humans. One major problem is the manufacturing and clearance of sanitary napkins. The napkins produced by t he companies which are not degradable and unsafe for womens. Sanitary napkins should provide comfort and safety, and also improve every woman's health and lifestyle. Women place these napkins next to the most delicate and absorbent tissue in our body.

Wome n spend at least 20% of their life with these sanitary napkins. India being a developing country, having 1.34 billion populations, in those 323.6 million peoples is female between the age group of 15 -49 [7]. In previous years, papyrus, Moss, grass, Bandage s were used during menstrual time and these materials can causes Irritation, Itchiness Skin rashes, allergy and lead to very serious health problems due to the presence of microorganisms. Manufacturers also add chemicals in the scented napkins that can cau se complications not only the women who is wearing it and also to the bab ies during embryonic development. In order to overcome these problems, here we are proposing s ustainable sanitary napkins by choosing alternative natural material for the production. In the present study, an attempt has been made to produce sanitary napkins from banana fiber, a natural absorbent fiber. It is expected that incorporation of banana fibers grant antibacterial property and improve the retentiveness [4]. Other important prop erties like antioxidant, bio degradable, UV protection, weather protection. It has no negative effect on environment and it is considered as eco -friendly fiber. II. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY MATERIALS: Sanitary napkins contain multilayered structure and each layer should have some specific function. Banana fiber, organic cotton, muslin cloth and canvas cloth were used as a source of material. Banana fiber is naturally occurring material and completely degradable and poses no side effect to humans and environme nt [3] Cotton wicks away moisture and keeps skin dry and its pH compatibility makes it. [5, 6] METHODOLOGY: A. Preparation of Banana fiber sheet The banana fibers are extracted from the stem of the banana tree and were cut into tiny pieces. The small banan a fiber pieces were taken in the vessel or beaker and allow it to boil with water for an hour. To this, sodium hydroxide wa s added . Later, it wa s filtered using a filter paper and the mixture wa s poured onto a mould of a required shape and let to dry under sunlight for a day. The banana sheet is formed after drying. B. Softening of Canvas Cloth Canvas cloth is used as a top layer in the sanitary napkin. It is usually used in making collar of shirts to maintain stiffness. To remove the starch from the cloth we have to soften by scrubbing it with brush so that the pore size will be increased and this also increasing the pore size of the cloth. C. Layering of sanitary napkin Sanitary pad comprises of multilayered structure in which each layer have exp licit capacity to perform [1]. The Banana fiber sheet is wrapped up with surgical cotton which is covered with Muslin cloth. The whole setup is again wrapped up with a Canvas cloth.Fig 1: Napkin layout III. RESULTS A. Survey A survey was taken from studen ts and staff of our University. Our product was designed according to their demands. According to our survey, women prefer napkins that have absorbance of 3 -4 hours and they are willing to try different brands that are chemical free. The survey pictures are as follows: Fig 2: Field Survey B. Extraction of Fiber [ ‚· Extraction of banana Fiber from the pseudo stem of the plant was done manually. Fig 3: Collection of banana stem Fig 4: Extraction of fibers C. Processing of fibres After extraction, the fibers are made to cut into fine chops and then it was allowed to boil with 150 mL of distilled water and 5 gram of sodium hydroxide for an hour. The mixture was cooled for about 1 and half hour to make a thin sheet. Fig 5: Fiber processing D. Pack aging of napkin The cotton was placed on to the thin banana sheet and then it was covered by the muslin cloth. The softened canvas cloth was used to wrap the entire sheets and then the corner of the canvas cloth in the napkin was allowed to stick using he at or else stitches can be made in the corner of the napkin . Fig 6: Sanitary napkin E. Testing The primed napkin s after UV Sterilization were tested by th e researchers who develope d the product and the result s were good and the n the sample s were disctr ibuted to others. F. Distribution of Sanitary napkin The sample napkins were distributed to the people in village s and the feedback was recorded continuously. The villagers felt that the product has an absorbance capacity of 5 hours and, no rashes or foul sm ell was observed by them.Fig 7 : Sample napkin distribution IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK Recently, n atural resources are gain ing attention in solv ing the problems faced by the people around the world. Th is study proved that the replacement of non degr adable material with the biodegradable material for developing hygienic feminine products is ecofriendly and cost effective. Use of natural material in napkins will be cost effective and it can be affordable by the lower income people. Using this technolog y, we can find a suitable solution to make the world better for future generation. V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors wish to acknowledge the Management of Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education for provid ing an opportunity to complete th is research work. VI. REFERENCES [1] Barman A*, Katkar PM and Asagekar SD. Natural and Sustainable Raw Materials for Sanitary Napkin , Textile Sci Eng, 2017, 7:3 [2] Dhinakaran M, Senthil CS, Sathis TK (2017) Development and characterization of sanitary napkins with Lyocell/Modal as absorbent core. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology 4: 1003 - 1006. [3] C.Vigneshwaran, V.Pavithra, V.Gayathri and K.My thili: Banana fiber: Scope and Value Added Product Development vol.9 issue 2, spring2015 [4] O. L. Shanmugasundaram, R V M Gowda, Development and Characterization of Bamboo and Organic Cotton Fibre Blended Baby Diapers Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research, Vol.35, pp.201 -205, Sept.2010. [5] Pepper LR, Dumain J (2016) Textile exchange organic cotton market report [6] Pohlmann M (2016) Design and materials selection: analysis of similar sanitary pads for daily use. International Journal of Engineer ing Research and Application 6: 74 -79. [7] World populations review (2017) World population by country