The microbial content of γ-irradiated Philippine bentonite

Bentonite is a popular beauty product, specifically as a face mask. Aside from its wide applications as a skincare product, it is also used to treat diarrhea, allergic contact dermatitis, and an antibacterial agent. Therefore, it is necessary to treat bentonite clay in removing bacteria and fungi without changing its healing or therapeutic properties. In this study, Philippine natural bentonite is characterized using XRD, EDX, and FTIR. Finally, the microbial count was performed to investigate the sterilization capability of γ-irradiation. XRD show that the mineral is primarily composed of mordenite, hectorite, and montmorillonite. EDX analysis reveals that the clay mineral is composed mainly of silica and alumina, which comprises around 86.22% of the total mass. IR transmittance spectra show no significant change in the structure of bentonite upon γ-irradiation except for the higher capacity to hold ambient moisture. Microbial count shows that raw bentonite contains 3.4 x 104 CFU/g. Meanwhile, the bentonite irradiated at 200 and 400 kGy has only