The Zinc doped calcium borate (Zn-CaB) was synthesized by the co-precipitation method. Zinc was known to exhibit a good antimicrobial effect without causing any environmental issues. However, the antimicrobial activity of zinc is relatively low as compared to silver or copper analogues. In the present investigation, an attempt was made to incorporate zinc in the matrix of calcium borates to enhance the antibacterial effect. Cosmetic products were made using the zinc-calcium-borates and the antibacterial/antifungal activity was evaluated and compared with the commercial products. The studies revealed that the antibacterial activity of Zn-CaB was equivalent to that commercially available product with a maximum of 99% reduction in bacterial strains and above 95% reduction in fungal strains. An attempt was made to incorporate a bacteriostatic effect on fabric by adding zinc-calcium-borates to detergent which exhibited prolonged antibacterial activity, even after 3 washing cycles. The cosmetic products were also evaluated for their thermal and photostability.

Microbes generally develop resistance towards organic antibacterial agents like ampicillin, Sulfonamides, methicillin, etc., and progressively new drugs are being invented to replace them. Hence, replacement of organic antibacterial agents with inorganic analogues requires constant research and the present investigation reports alternatives for conventional antimicrobial agents like methylparaben, diazolidinyl urea, etc., in the cosmetic products with silver incorporated calcium borates. The chemically synthesized silver-calcium borates have been analyzed for phase purity using powder XRD analysis, nature of bonding using FTIR vibrations, and morphology using SEM. The antibacterial and antifungal studies were carried out for the novel inorganic silver-calcium borates incorporated cosmetic products. The products were also subjected to thermal & photostability studies and found to be comparable with that of commercially available products. A minimum quantity of 3 ppm of silver-calcium borate concentration was required to bring about nearly 100% bacterial reduction in the cosmetic products.