Cleaner dyeing and antibacterial activity of wool fabric using Henna dye modified with Acacia nilotica pods

Natural dyes have promising features; however, there are some drawbacks limiting their application in textile dyeing, for example, low dyeing, and fastness properties due to the weak interaction with textiles. Many attempts have been made to improve these shortcomings by using additional chemicals such as metallic mordants which are classified as hazardous chemicals that cause some serious environmental problems. Therefore, we have designed a facile green method for the extraction of natural dye from Henna leaves using Acacia nilotica pods to improve the color intensity and enhance fibers/dye affinity. In this study, wool fabrics were dyed with Henna and Henna/Acacia dye at different dyeing conditions. FTIR and UV–vis spectrums showed peaks corresponding to tannin and its derivatives in the aqueous extract of modified Henna. Modified Henna dyed samples exhibited noticeable improvement in the color strength (K/S value), washing, rubbing, and lightfastness with excellent antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus.