Dyeing of Textiles with Natural Dyes

Textile materials (natural and synthetic) used to be coloured for value addition, look and desire of the customers. Anciently, this purpose of colouring textile was initiated using colours of natural source, untill synthetic colours/dyes were invented and commercialized. For ready availability of pure synthetic dyes of different types/classes and its cost advantages, most of textile dyers/ manufacturers shifted towards use of synthetic colourant. Almost all the synthetic colourants being synthesized from petrochemical sources through hazardous chemical processes poses threat towards its eco-friendliness. Hence, worldwide, growing consciousness about organic value of eco-friendly products has generated renewed interest of consumers towards use of textiles (preferably natural fibre product) dyed with eco-friendly natural dyes. Natural dyes are known for their use in colouring of food substrate, leather as well as natural fibres like wool, silk and cotton as major areas of application since pre-historic times. Although this ancient art of dyeing textiles with natural dyes withstood the ravages of time, but due to the wide availability of synthetic dyes at an economical price, a rapid decline in natural dyeing continued. However, even after a century, the uses of natural dyes never erode completely and they are being still used in different places of the world. Thus, natural dyeing of different textiles and leathers has been continued mainly in the decentralized sector for specialty products besides the use of synthetic dyes in the large scale sector for general textiles/apparels. Recently, most of the commercial dyers and textile export houses have started re-looking to the maximum possibilities of using natural dyes for dyeing and printing of different textiles for targeting niche market. Natural dyes produce very uncommon, soothing and soft shades as compared to synthetic dyes. On the other hand, synthetic dyes, which are widely available at an economical price and produce a wide variety of colours, sometimes causes skin allergy and other harmfulness to human body, produces toxicity/chemical hazards during its synthesis, releases undesirable/hazardous/toxic chemicals etc. For successful commercial use of natural dyes for any particular fibres, the appropriate and standardized techniques for dyeing for that particular fibre-natural dye system need to be adopted. Therefore to obtain newer shade with acceptable colour fastness behaviour and reproducible colour yield, appropriate scientific dyeing techniques/procedures are to be derived. Thus, relevant scientific studies and its output on standardization of dyeing