Enhancing Silk Fabric with Eco-friendly Natural Dyes: A Comparative Study

Aims: A variety of natural dyes made from plants, animals, or minerals can be used to color silk, a natural protein fiber. Natural dyes are eco-friendly, biodegradable, and have medicinal properties. These dyes offer unique advantages such as minimal toxicity, lower allergenic reactions, and cost-effectiveness, in contrast to artificial dyes. This research focuses on dyeing silk with selected natural dyes using different mordants.

Study Design: For dyeing silk, ten different plants were selected as the source of natural dye.

Place and Duration of Study: The work was done in the Department of Botany, Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta, Kerala, India.

Methodology: The study utilized natural dyes from the leaves of Lawsonia inermis, rind of Punica granatum, peel of Alium cepa, fruit of Selenicereus undatus, tubers of Beta vulgaris, bark of Phyllanthus emblica, flowers of Clitoria ternatea, Bougainvillea glabra, Tagetus erecta and Rosa multiflora. Ferrous sulphate and Copper sulphate the mordants were used in the present study. The collected plant materials were dried, powdered and extracted with water. Silk cloth was submerged in water for twenty-four hours prior to dying. The fabric and aqueous extract were combined in a 1:20 w/v ratio. Silk was dyed at 100 °C for one hour in order to fully color the fabric.

Results: The outcomes of the present study indicated that the type of natural dyes and mordant had a significant influence on the dyeing performance and the quality of the dyed silk. The silk samples that were colored showed good color fastness to light, rubbing, and washing. This research is innovative because of its straightforward extraction and dying method, which may be scaled up industrially and used to reduce pollution. Further studies are needed to discover the new color source and its large-scale, sustainable production for industrial applications.

In the present study, among the selected plants Selenicerus undatus and Rosa multiflora are new to texile dyeing.

Conclusion: The study demonstrated the feasibility and potential of using natural dyes for silk dyeing in a sustainable and environment-friendly manner.