ATIRA to innovate unique medical textile

Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association (ATIRA) is currently working on new project that will benefit the military tremendously. Researchers, here, are bringing their minds together to develop a ‘medical textile’ that will speed up blood-clotting. Making this unique product involves shrimp shells as its key material, which is similar to the dressing bandages used by US Army in Iraq.

Experts say that shrimp shells are chief source of chitin. When chitin is purified it turns into chitosan that is used for several medical purposes. Shrimp shells are waste products of seafood and since India has long coastline it is available in abundance. Hence, using this will not only be useful but also profitable. Sources say that ATIRA plans for commercial production of this innovation and move on to create other such smart textiles.