In this work, zein, a by-product of the agricultural industry of corn, was used to impart hydrophobicity and antimicrobial activity to textiles. The cotton textiles were functionalized with zein in two different forms, free or as particles. The optimized coating conditions which rendered the highest hydrophobic character to the textiles were found to be 50 g/L zein in the free form prepared with 70% ethanol. To enhance the antimicrobial activity of the coated textiles, ellagic acid was encapsulated into the zein particles. These presented stable diameters, between 300 and 450 nm, and positive surface charge revealing high encapsulation efficiency. After textiles coating, the controlled release of ellagic acid was tested against different mimetic biologic solutions. The release profile was dependent on the ethanol concentration, on the sweat solution pH and on the external media used during dialysis. The functionalized textiles revealed differentiated antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli (Gram-negative) and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive). For E. coli the activity was mainly related with the action of zein while for S. aureus a combined effect between the protein and the ellagic acid was observed. The results herein presented pave the way for the development of new zein-based products for a wide range of applications.

在这项工作中，玉米蛋白是玉米农业的副产品，被用于赋予纺织品疏水性和抗菌活性。用两种不同形式的玉米蛋白将棉纺织品功能化，游离形式或颗粒形式。发现使纺织品具有最高疏水性的最佳涂覆条件是用70％乙醇制备的游离形式的玉米醇溶蛋白50 g / L。为了增强涂层纺织品的抗菌活性，将鞣花酸封装到玉米醇溶蛋白颗粒中。这些呈现出稳定的直径，介于300和450 nm之间，并且正表面电荷显示出高封装效率。纺织品包衣后，针对不同的模拟生物溶液测试了鞣花酸的控制释放。释放曲线取决于乙醇浓度，汗液的pH值以及透析过程中使用的外部介质。功能化纺织品显示出对大肠杆菌（革兰氏阴性）和金黄色葡萄球菌（革兰氏阳性）。对于大肠杆菌，活性主要与玉米蛋白的作用有关，而对于金黄色葡萄球菌，则观察到蛋白质和鞣花酸之间的联合作用。本文介绍的结果为开发适用于多种应用的玉米醇溶蛋白新产品铺平了道路。