Use of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants in Textiles for Sustainable Livelihood Management for Rural People

摘要

India, with its varied agroclimatic conditions, provides an ideal habitat for several medicinal and aromatic plants. Since ancient times, these plants have been used as raw material in the Indian medicinal and cosmetic industry. With greater realization of health hazard and side effects of synthetic chemicals used in various aspects of textile industries, the interest for use of natural aromatic and medicinal plants is increasing worldwide. An estimated amount of US$ 3000 million per annum is being earned from medicinal and aromatic plants from India. With the advancement of new researches and technologies, it has been observed that these herbal plants have a good scope in various fields of textile industries. The antibacterial properties of variousnatural medicinal products, such as clove (Syzygium aromaticum) oil, neem (Azadirachta indica) oil, tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) oil, and karanja (Pongamia pinnata) oil are used for getting bacteria-resist finish on fabrics in a completely eco-friendly way. Some plants like bamboo have many antibacterial qualities and are used for making fabrics for medicinal use (Medtech).1 Many herbs are being used for dyeing of textiles to make eco-friendly textiles by imparting medicinal values of herbs along with theirnatural color to textiles.