More particularly, it relates to a silver ion-containing solution which is prepared by a method comprising the steps of introducing distilled water or purified water (hereinafter, referred to as"non-mineral distilled water) into an electrolyzer including a container of a desired shape, setting up two silver bars made of highly pure (more than 99%) silver into the non-mineral distilled water in such a manner that the silver bars are opposite with respect to each other, applying direct current to the opposite silver bars so that silver are electrolyzed from the silver bars to form a silver- dissolved solution, and mixing a desired amount of adhesives harmless to the human body with the silver- dissolved solution, and relates to use of the silver ion- containing solution, comprising applying or coating the silver-containing solution on, or mixing or diluting with daily necessaries such as textiles, papers and the like.

Background Art It is generally known that silver along with gold is

a noble mineral harmless to the human body. For example, the ancients have stored water in a jar made of silver before ingesting water, and the Americans in the West settlement period have sterilized and pasteurized by putting silver coins into milk milked just from milking cows, before ingesting the milk.

In Korea, needles or spoons made of silver have been used in everyday life as articles removing or preventing poisons harmful to the human body. Also, in Dongeuibogam which is a typical Chinese medicine book in Korea, silver is described as curing chillness, epilepsy and the like.

Also, in Chinese medical botanical lists, there is reported that silver renders the five viscera easy, makes body and mind stable, drives away wickedness, and lightens a body, thereby lengthening a span life. Thus, it can be proved from the above publications that silver is a highly useful mineral to the human body.

However, as silver has been used mainly for purification or detoxication of drinking water up to now, there are not actually developed methods of ingesting silver as ultrafine particles or applying directly to the human body.

Although silver is vaguely known to be useful to the human body, there is no reliable scientific basis supporting the fact that silver is of help to health of the human body. However, silver eradicates about 650 kinds of bacteria in a few minutes without providing toxicity to the human body, thereby treating diseases.

This is not obtained by direct action of metallic silver on bacteria. Rather, silver ions (Ag+) released from the metallic silver acts on enzymes involving in metabolism of bacteria, such as breath, digestion and the like, to

make bacteria impotent, thereby suffocating or eradicating bacteria. In addition to this action, an anode current consumer of the silver ions (Ag\') dissolves bioplasms of bacteria.

According to this principle, there are currently studied methods for effective use of the silver ions.

Among these methods, it is reported that use of colloidal silver ions dissolved in the non-mineral distilled water exhibits the most excellent effect.

Korean patent publication No. 90-3582 discloses a manufacturing method of a silver-coated carbon for sterilization. The method of such reference includes carbonizing walnut shell pieces cut to have a suitable size ; heating the resulting carbons at a temperature of 40 to 60 °C ; adding the heated carbon to a silver ion- containing solution which was heated to a temperature 40 to 60 °C and in which the ratio of a distilled water to silver nitrate ratio is in the range of 150 to 180 : 1 ; allowing the silver ions to be penetrated sufficiently into the carbon ; and drying the resulting carbon to have a humidity of 80 to 90%. Also, Korean Utility Model Publication No. 99-140720 discloses an agricultural mat having excellent ventilation and air-passage effects.

The disclosed mat is prepared by coating a silver foil on a hard synthetic resin sheet to form a silver foil-coated portion, carrying out a finish coating process for preventing an envelope of the sheet from being damaged to form a finish coat on the sheet, and forming pores having various shapes on the resulting sheet. However, the articles disclosed in the above references are not daily necessaries, which exhibit a bactericidal or antibacterial effect, which can be obtained through the

direct use by the human. As a result, these articles could be not applied as products, which have the direct effect on the human body.

Disclosure of the Invention It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a silver ion-containing solution which is obtained by ionizing highly pure silver in a non-mineral distilled water by electrolysis to form a silver- dissolved solution, and then by adding a desired amount of adhesives to the silver-dissolved solution and mixing them.

It is another object of the present invention to provide use of a silver ion-containing solution, comprising adding the silver ion-containing solution to various foods or drinking waters so as to be ingested directly by the human, or coating or applying the silver ion-containing solution on daily necessaries such as textiles, papers and the like, or mixing the silver- containing solution with, or diluting in foods or drinking waters.

Brief Description of the Drawing Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a silver ion- containing solution and its use according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying-out the Invention A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawing.

As shown in Fig. 1, a desired amount of non-mineral

distilled water 100 is introduced into an electrc-yer 1 including a container which receives the non-mineral distilled water 100. Two silver bars made of highly pure silver (99. 9% purity) are set up in the container such a manner that they are opposite with respect to each other.

Where direct current is applied to the silver bars, pure silver 10 is electrolyzed by the action of applied current, and dissolved as ions in the non-mineral distilled water 100 to form a silver-dissolved solution 2. Here, a concentration of the silver ions in the silver-dissolved solution is preferably more than 2 ppm.

Then, to the silver-dissolved solution 2 obtained by the electrolysis, a desired amount of adhesives 20 harmless to the human body is added to produce a silver ion-containing solution 3. Daily necessaries to be coated 30 are dipped directly in the silver ion- containing solution. The silver-coated or applied articles are dried in a dryer and packed, thereby obtaining complete products 5.

Here, in the container of the electrolyzer-, two bars made of pure silver 10 are set up in such a manner that they are opposite with respect to each other. Where the silver bars are electrically connected to current- supplying input terminal, highly pure silver is electrolyzed while being ionized in the non-mineral distilled water to form the silver-dissolved solution 2.

The concentration (ppm) of silver ions (Ag+) ionized in the non-mineral distilled water by electrolysis can be adjusted depending on an electrolysis time in the electrolyzer 1, current intensity, and the like.

Meanwhile, with respect to use of the silver ion- containing solution according to the present invention,

it may be packed by itself as drinking water such that it can be ingested depending on its silver ion concentration. Alternatively, the silver ion-containing solution may be mixed with a variety of other drinking waters such that it can be ingested together with the other drinking waters. Also, it may be coated on foods such that it can be taken with the foods.

In order to allow coating or applying the silver- dissolved solution 2 on textiles or papers, etc., the present invention includes adding adhesives 20 to the silver-dissolved solution 2 at a desired amount and stirring the resulting mixture to form the silver ion- containing solution 3. As the adhesives 20, particular adhesives harmless to the human body while having an excellent adhesive strength can be used depending on a quality or use, etc., of the textile or papers. The silver ion-containing solution 3 is impregnated directly into, or coated on articles to be coated 30, thereby forming silver-coated articles. The silver-coated articles are dried in a dryer to obtain complete products 5. In this case, a concentration of silver ions in the silver ion-containing solution is preferably more than 14 ppm.

Examples of the articles which can be coated with the silver ion-containing solution according to the present invention include pulps, papers or textiles, hygienic articles such as a hygienic band, a mask, a diaper or bandage, favorite articles such as cigarette filter, or papers for cigarette or chewing gum, textile goods such as medical cotton clothes, pants, underclothes or socks, articles for living space such as wall paper or floor paper, or interior decoration articles such as

curtain or blind.

Also, other examples of the articles which can be coated with the silver ion-containing solution according to the present invention include natural foods such as vegetables or fruits, or processed foods such as confectionary or sausage.

Meanwhile, with respect to other use of the silver- containing solution according to the present invention, it may be mixed diluted with, or diluted directly in foods, medical supplies and other similar products, cosmetics or drinking waters, suc : that it can be ingested together with the products. In this case, a concentration of silver ions in the silver-containing solution is preferably more than 2 ppm.

Use of the silver-containing solution according to the present invention is not limited only to the above use. Also, the concentration of silver ions in the silver-containing solution can be adjusted depending on use purpose and field of the silver-coated articles or whether they are in contact with the human body or not, such that an availability of silver can be maximized.

Meanwhile, to confirm the silver-containing solution according to the present invention, the following test was carried out.

Test Procedure 1. Strains to be tested : Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Escherichia coli (ATCC 8739), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (KCTC 1750), and Salmonella typhimurium (KCTC 1925).

2. Pre-culturing of the strains to be tested Each of the strains was taken out in cryopreservation state, inoculated to a nutrient broth, and then subjected to the shake culture at 37 °C for 24 hours.

3. Preparation of bacterial suspensions to be tested Each of the pre-cultured bacterial suspensions was inoculated to 100 ml of a nutrient broth at 1° (v/v), and then subjected to the shake culture at 37 °C for 10-12 hours for Staphylococcus aureus, and for 16-20 hours for other strains.

4. Initial inoculation concentration An initial value of a suitable bacterial suspension number for test is 106to 10 cells/ml. For this value, 1 ml of each of the pre-cultured bacterial suspensions was added to 100 ml of distilled water which had been sterilized. Each of the resulting materials as a stock solution was diluted by a serial dilution method, and spread on a plate culture. Each of the plates was cultured in an incubator at 37 °C for 24 hours. Survived colonies were counted to obtain the initial inoculation concentration.

5. Preparation of solutions to be tested Distilled water was introduced into a silver ion- generating electrolyzer, and the electrolyzer was operated one time (6 rpm), three times (12 rpm), and five times (18 rpm) for 25 minutes per one time operation, thereby collecting the test solutions. The collected test solutions were sterilized by high pressure steam

sterilization. Blanks were prepared by sterilization of distilled water.

6. Test procedure 50 ml of each of the test solutions prepared in the above step was inoculated with 1 ml of the bacterial suspension which had been adjusted in its initial bacterial concentration. Just after inoculation, 0. 1 ml of the inoculated solution was collected again, and measured for its initial bacterial count value. After 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours and 24 hours, the inoculated solution was also collected in the same manner, and measured for the survived bacterial count.

In the survived bacterial count measurement, the collected solution was diluted by the serial dilution method, spread on a plate culture after every dilution, and then cultured in an incubator. After culturing, each of the plate cultures was measured for colony count to determine the survived bacterial count according passage of time. On the basis of the determined bacterial count, whether the bacteria number was reduced or not was determined.

7. Summary of the test procedure Pre-culturing-+ Inoculation with bacterial suspension (sterilized distilled water)- Measurement of initial bacterial concentration-+ Inoculation of bacteria to each of samples Collection of test solution at initial, 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hour, and 24 hours- Spreading on plate culture after dilution Measurement of bacterial concentration after culturing and time passage- Calculation of bacterial

reduction (%) according to time passage.

The bacterial reduction (%) is calculated according to the following equation : Bacterial concentrat ion at initial (0 hr)-


survived bacterial concentrat ion
according to time passage




Bacterial reduction (%) = - x 100








Bacterial concentrat ion at initial (0 hr)
(Concentration : CFU/ml) 8. Test result Table 1 below shows results of survived bacterial count according to time passage in each strain.

Table 1 Test strains Samples Concentration (CFU/ml) 0 1 min 10 min 1 hr 6 hr 24 hr Staphvlococcus Blank 6. 7x106 7.1x106 7.6x106 7.5x106 8.8x106 9. 6x10\' Aureus 6 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 12 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 18 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 Escherichia Blank 3. 7x106 2.6x107 4.5x107 4.4x106 9.7x106 1.1x108 Coli 6ppm 0 0 0 0 0 12ppm00 0 0 0 18 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 Pseudomanas Blank 3. 7x106 3.8106 3.8x106 4.1x106 4.4106 5.1x106 Aenuginosa 6 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 12 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 18 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 Salmonella Blank 4. 7x106 4.6x106 4.9x106 5.1x106 5. 2x106 5.1x105 Typhimurium 6 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 12 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 18 ppm 0 0 0 0 0 Table 2 below shows bacterial reduction (%) according to strain species in the samples.

Table2 Test strains Samples Bacterial reduction (%) 0 1 min 10 min 1 hr 6 hr 24 hr Stctpl1ylococcus 6 ppm-100 100 100 100 100 aureus 12 ppm 100 100 100 100 100 18 ppm 100 100 100 100 100 Escherichia 6 ppm-100 100 100 100 100 Coli 12 ppm 100 100 100 100 100 18 ppm 100 100 too 100 100 Psendomanas 6 ppm-100 100 100 100 100 aeruginosa 12 ppm 100 100 too 100 100 IS ppm 100 100 too too 100 Salmonella 6 ppm-100 100 100 100 100 tvphimurium 12 ppm 100 100 100 100 100 18 ppm 100 100 100 100 100 9. Conclusion From the results of bactericidal activity test for the solutions containing the silver ions generated from the silver ion-generating electrolyzer, it could be found that all samples have exhibited 100 % of bactericidal effect on four species of the test strains at 1 minute after contacting with the strains.

Industrial Applicability As apparent from the foregoing, the present invention can provide a variety of articles having bactericidal and antibacterial functions. This is accomplished by ionizing silver in non-mineral distilled water using the electrolyzer to form the silver-dissolved solution, adding a desired amount of adhesives to the

silver-dissolved solution to form the silver ion- containing solution, and by coating or applying daily necessaries such as textiles, paper and the like with the silver ion-containing solution. In addition, the present invention includes mixing the silver ion-containing solution with drinking waters or applying it on foods such that it can be ingested along with the products.

Thus, the present invention can improve hygiene property and health of the human body.

Although the preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.