Development of sustainable, eco-friendly antimicrobial finishing of cotton fabric using prodigiosin of Serratia marcescens SP1

Textile industries use synthetic colourants that often pollute soil, and water, which could be replaced with microbially derived pigment. The major aim of this study was to develop a textile fabric using microbially derived colourants that are eco-friendly in nature. A prodigiosin-producing bacterial strain was isolated and identified as Serratia marcescens SP1. The optimization of growth parameters revealed that yeast malt extract medium with pH of 7, temperature of 24 degrees C, and growth time of 3 days has maximum prodigiosin production. Further, the R-f value of 0.89 in TLC, UV visible absorption spectra of 534 nm, functional groups obtained in FTIR, a molecular weight of 322 D m/z in GC-MS, 81.13 % purity in HPLC, chemical shifts in NMR and an amorphous state in XRD confirmed the presence of prodigiosin pigment. It was found to have the highest antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. Further, prodigiosin-imbibed fabrics possessed improved tensile strength, elongation, abrasion, crease recovery, stiffness, thickness, tearing strength, and bursting properties, confirming the stability and durability of the prodigiosin-coated fabric. The biodegradation ability of prodigiosin-coated fabric showed an increased degradation rate of 33.33 % compared to synthetic fabric. Overall, studies conferred the usage of prodigiosin to control infections on textile fabrics.