Topical medicinal substances (or drugs) in liquid formulations are conventionally applied using cotton, gauze, or other applicators that are made of cellulose materials.The adsorption of drugs to these cellulose materials is known to reduce both drug availability and efficacy in patient treatment.In our previous studies, cellulose fibers were reported to be neg. charged due to the presence of a bleaching process.Substantial adsorption of pos. charged cationic drugs, such as disinfectants, due to electrostatic interaction has been observedThe objective of this study was to compare three typical bleaching agents, namely sodium hypochlorite, sodium chlorite and hydrogen peroxide, in organic acid (R-COOH) generation and drug adsorption for cotton, with the goal of selecting the most suitable bleaching agent for bleaching cotton.The results indicated that hydrogen peroxide generated less organic acid than the other two agents.Consequently, the cationic drug adsorption to the cotton bleached by hydrogen peroxide was the lowest.In addition, no visible differences were seen in the whiteness for the cotton bleached by these three agents.Therefore, the use of hydrogen peroxide is recommended as the bleaching agent for cotton.