Eco-Friendly Printing of Cotton Fabric using Natural Dye from Annona Squamosa L.

Natural dyes are the colours extracted from natural sources like roots, wood, bark, leaves, flowers, nuts, seeds, insects and mineral compounds etc. These were the only source of colour until the invention of synthetic dyes. Synthetic dyes occupied the market place within no time and are excessively used to meet the requirement of the global consumption. These dyes have negative impact on environment and cause serious health hazards. The present study tried to explore screen printing of cotton fabric with Annonna Squamosa L. leaf dye extract. The natural dye was extracted from leaves of custard apple through aqueous method, which was used as colouring pigment in the print paste. Four different mordants were tried in the study to acquire different hues. The printed fabrics were evaluated by measuring the fastness properties. The samples printed underwent through subjective evaluation interms of depth of colour and sharpness of print. It was concluded that distinctive shades were obtained by different mordants when mixed with same dye extract and excellent fastness properties were portrayed by the sample printed with custard apple leaf dye in combination with copper sulphate mordant.