Antimicrobial textiles, skin-borne flora and odour

Along with climate and physical activity, textiles have an effect on sweating and the development of odours. Accordingly, textiles inadequately optimized in terms of clothing technology as a result of poorly cut structures or poor materials result in increased sweating and odour. However, the development of body odour itself cannot be avoided, even with optimally designed clothing. Therefore new textiles, 'treated with antimicrobial agents', have been developed, with the aim of reducing odour by decreasing the number of germs on the skin. From the scientific point of view, the interactions between textiles, sweat, skin and skin flora are extremely complex. For this reason, this article explains in more detail the basic principles of odour formation resulting from sweat and how this can be influenced by textiles treated with antimicrobial agents. With reference to the results of recent research, the article looks into questions of how textiles treated with antimicrobial agents have an effect on populations of skin bacteria.