Application of Medicinal Dye (Turmeric and Annatto) on Silk Fabrics Using Eco-friendly Mordants

The present research focuses on extraction of medicinal dye from Turmeric root and Annatto seeds and its application on silk fabrics using eco-friendly mordants Garcinia indica fruit shell and Alum. The art of dyeing with vegetable dyes gained momentum not only from the point of safety of health and environment but also for their beauty and novelty. ‘Silk” is a valuable textile fibre prized for its unique properties like luster, sheen and hand. A large number of potential natural mordants are available, but very limited number of researches have been conducted on natural mordants. Considering the drawbacks of synthetic mordants there is need to explore new natural mordants to minimize the use of synthetic mordants. Medicinal dye had been extracted from commercially available Turmeric root and Annatto seeds by neutral media. The extracted dye had been used for dyeing of silk fabrics using eco-friendly mordants i.e.; Garcinia indica fruit shell and Alum by simultaneous mordanting techniques. Dyed Silk fabric samples were tested for various fastness tests such as fastness to washing, fastness to dry, wet rubbing and dry cleaning.