Investigating the Antibacterial Characteristics of Japanese Bamboo.

Natural materials, such as bamboo, is able to withstand the rough conditions posed by its environment, such as resistance to degradation by microorganisms, due to notable antibacterial characteristics. The methods of extraction exert a significant influence on the effectiveness of bamboo-derived antibacterial agents. In this study, the antibacterial characteristics of various types of Japanese bamboo, namely, Kyoto-Moso, Kyushu-Moso and Kyushu-Madake were investigated by considering an extraction and a non-extraction method.

Investigating the Effect of Smoke Treatment on Hygroscopic Characteristics of Bamboo by FTIR and Raman Spectroscopy.

Treatment modification to improve the durability of bamboo against biotic and abiotic factors often results in adverse effects to its mechanical properties due to changes in hygroscopic characteristics. This study aims at exploring in more detail, the effect of treatment modification, in particular smoke treatment, on the hygroscopic nature of bamboo. In the first part of this study, changes to its chemical structure were investigated by Raman and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic techniques.

Antibacterial Property of Cellulose Acetate Composite Materials Reinforced with Aluminum Nitride.

Cellulose acetate (CA) is a synthetic compound that is derived from the acetylation of cellulose. CA is well known as it has been used for many commercial products such as textiles, plastic films, and cigarette filters. In this research, antibacterial CA composites were produced by addition of aluminum nitride (AlN) at different weight percentage, from 0 wt.

Investigating the Underlying Effect of Thermal Modification on Shrinkage Behavior of Bamboo Culm by Experimental and Numerical Methods.

This study probes into the root cause of split in thermally modified bamboo culm by investigating the underlying effect of thermal contraction with respect to its orthotropic nature by experimental and numerical methods while concurrently monitoring the chemical variation of its structure by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In first part of this study, a non-linear increase in dimensional and weight changes of small clear bamboo specimens were observed with increasing temperature. The dimensional changes in the radial and tangential directions significantly exceeded that in the longitudinal direction.

Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties of Composite Polyethylene Materials Reinforced with Neem and Turmeric.

With the increased scientific interest in green technologies, many researches have been focused on the production of polymeric composites containing naturally occurring reinforcing particles. Apart from increasing mechanical properties, these additions can have a wide range of interesting effects, such as increasing the resistance to bacterial and fungal colonization. In this work, different amounts of two different natural products, namely neem and turmeric, were added to polyethylene to act as a natural antibacterial and antifungal product for food packaging applications.