New Products Based on Essential Oils for the Treatment of Medical Furs

OLGA NICULESCU1*, LUMINITA ALBU1, MARIA CARMEN LOGHIN2, CARMEN GAIDAU1, LUCRETIA MIU1, GHEORGHE COARA1 1 National Research and Development Institute for Textiles and Leather Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute, 93 Ion Minulescu Str., Bucharest, Romania 2 Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Faculty of Textile Leather and Industrial Management, 28 Dimitrie Mangeron Str., Iasi, Romania

In recent years, significant progress has been made in developing the hygienic potential of natural fur.
Ecological requirements as well as requirements related to fur assortment characteristics have led to the development of new fur processing technologies, such as: wet-white tanning of fur to eliminate or reduce the amount of complex salts of trivalent chromium; -tanning using chemically modified vegetable tannins or small molecular phenolic and polyphenolic compounds, including those derived from cellulose-making and refining techniques; sanitation of natural fur by binding some therapeutic species to the dermis and/or the hair [1,2].
There are a number of people with rheumatic, joint and muscular diseases and medical treatment of patients suffering from these diseases requires improvement through alternate methods.
Rheumatism is a condition located in the musculoskeletal system and in the heart area, as a result of inflammatory or degenerative injuries of connective tissue. Rheumatic pains are predominantly located in the joints. Treating rheumatic diseases is practiced by oral administration of drugs and the application of cataplasms, gels, ointments, creams, patches with analgesic effect. Pain is the main symptom of rheumatic diseases. Chronic pain affects the physical and mental condition and thus lowers the quality of life and ability to work. For these diseases are recommended herbal plant species with antiallergic, anti-inflammatory effects, etc. Heat can relieve rheumatic pains (transmitted through the application of natural fur).Many species of plants containing essential oils bring their contribution all over the world in preventing various diseases. Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus L) is part of the Myrtaceae family and is a tree with evergreen leaves, specific to Australian flora. Essential oil is obtained by steam distillation of young leaves and branches [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].
This paper presents characterization of the eucalyptus essential oil by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy -GC-MS and, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectrometry, [19,20] and the process of obtaining and physical-chemical characterization of new products based on eucalyptus essential oil, ethyl alcohol, non-ionogenic surfactants from the category of polyethoxylated fatty alcohols and polyethylene glycols, and cationic surfactants (quaternary ammonium salts), for the treatment of medical furs.
Dense and fine wool sheepskins (Merinos) were selected to obtain finished products coated with fine and dense hair follicles.

Experimental part
-Polyethylene Glycol 400 (Merck, Germany), density -1.13 g/cm 3  Synthesis of materials based on plant extracts was conducted in a glass flask using a heating and homogenization installation (Velp) and an ultrasonic bath (Elmasonic S 15 H).
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) Analysis: Analysis of the essential oils was carried out by using Agilent 7890 A GC System equipped with Agilent 5795 C MS, and HP-5 MS (0.25 mm x 30 m i.d., film thickness 0.25). The carried gas helium (99.9%) at a flow rate of 1 mL/ min; ionization energy was 70 eV. Mass range m/z 50-650 amu. Data acquisition was scan mode. MS transfer line temperature was 250 0 C, MS Ionization source temperature was 230 0 C, the injection port temperature was 250 0 C. The samples were injected with 250 split ratio. The injection volume was 1µL. Oven temperature was programmed in the range of 50 to 250 0 C at 3 0 C/ min. The structure of each compound was identified by comparison with their mass spectrum (Nist 05 and Wiley 7 library).
A UV-Vis spectrophotometer model JASCO, V-550, equipped with 1 cm 3 quartz cuvettes, was used in this paper and absorbance was measured on the 200-800 nm range. To identify the phenol from UV-VIS fingerprint spectras for two extracts of cloves and eucalyptus, a dilution was made for the both extracts: 0.1 mL of extract + 10 mL of ethanol. Sheepskins were tanned and treated with products based on essential oils with therapeutic properties in rotating barrels FA.VE (Italy).
The product obtained was marked P-EUC.

Obtaining ecologic medical sheepskins
Ecologic medical sheepskins were obtained using the products [23] based on sulphated fatty alcohols (Borron SAF), oils based on sulphated and sulphonated natural and synthetic fatty substances (Coripol UFB/W) and syntans based on phenol sulphonic acids and aromatic oxysulphones (Sellatan MBS, Sellatan RL), according to the technology in table 1.

Results and discussions
Characterisation of components used to obtain the product Eucalyptus essential oil used to obtain the product was analysed using GC-MS and FT-IR. Chromatogram for eucalyptus oil is shown in figure 1, and identification of compounds in its composition is presented in table 2.
The following compounds are found in the highest amount: eucaliptol -73.23%, d-limonene - 14 FT-IR (ATR) spectra of eucalyptus essential oil are shown in figure 2.
Thes bicyclocamphane compound can be identified by the most intensive band at 983 cm -1 . Other characteristic bands of 1,8-Cineole, which are seen in the FTIR spectrum, can be attributed to C-O-C symmetrical (1079 cm -1 ) and asymmetrical (1214 cm -1 ) stretching vibrations as well as to CH 3 symmetrical deformation modes recognised at 1375 cm -1 .
UV-Vis spectra of eucalyptus essential oil are shown in figure 3.

Characterization by physical-chemical and physicalmechanical analyses of furs
The values of the physical-chemical characteristics of the medical furs are comparable to the values set by the standards for sheep furskins intended for clothing (volatile dermal matter 11.16-11.66% and volatile wool matter 9.82-12.21%, extractable dermal substances 9.31-11.21% and wool extracts 0.41-0.78%, ash 3,02-3,63%, pH of aqueous extract, 4. Values of shrinkage temperatures for medical sheep furskins are lower (73 0 C) than those of sheep furs processed with basic chromium salts (approx. 80 0 C).
The following were determined Chromium VI contentundetectable values. The
The obtained products can be applied to Merinos sheep fur in two ways: -in the float as a final operation using 20-30% essential oil based products in 100% water bath at 50-60°C in the presence of a biodegradable nonionic emulsifier, ethoxylated lauryl alcohol with 7 moles of ethylene oxide (10% of the amount of product used) for 30 min.
-by dabbing with a cloth on the fur or fur articles. Treatment with these products can be repeated at certain time intervals, and the application procedure on the fur surface or fur articles is easy.
The products can be used to treat the surface of finished sheep furskins (free of metals) for medical purposes and improve the quality of natural fur and fur articles (lumbar belts, knee pads, elbow pads etc.) used to prevent, relieve The sample of eucalyptus oil extract was analyzed by the UV-Vis spectroscopy method.
UV-Vis spectra of oil sample in ethanol show the presence of tannins, because the absorption peak observed at 200-280 nm is typical for condensed benzene ring system, in which conjugation is realized between aromatic group and carbonyl group, double bond or hetero atom.
Chemical characteristics of product based on eucalyptus oil were determined according to the following standards: dry substance (%) -SR EN ISO 4684:2006; pH -SR-EN ISO 4098: 2006. and treat rheumatic, muscular, circulatory disorders, complementing the medical treatment of patients suffering from these conditions, keeping the fur-covered area warm.
The P-EUC product with therapeutic properties (analgesic, anti-inflammatory and relaxing) can be used (in proportion of 20-30%) for treatment of medical furs.
Sheepskins were tanned with syntans based on phenolsulphonic acids and aromatic oxisulfones.
The products can be used to treat the surface of finished sheep furskins (free of metals) for medical purposes and improve the quality of natural fur and fur articles (lumbar belts, knee pads, elbow pads etc.) used to prevent, relieve and treat rheumatic, muscular, circulatory disorders, complementing the medical treatment of patients suffering from these conditions, keeping the fur-covered area warm.