Mango kernel starch: A bio-thickener for natural printing on fabric

Printing designs and colours form an artistic expression to establish the fabric. The craft of printing occupies a unique place in Indian civilization. The thickener is the crucial component of print paste. Thickeners used in textile printing are high molecular weight compounds giving viscous pastes in water. Mango kernel is a rich source of starch content. Annually aproximately 0.13 million tones of starch can be isolated from mago kernel. The starch is eco friendly, low cost, non – conventional starch and has good pasting property therfore in present study it used for printing on cotton and silk fabrics using marigold dye source as pigment. The results revealed that 2 percent mango kernel starch exhibited good to better light fastness, very good fastness rating to washing, rubbing and perspiration on both cotton and silk fabrics. Hence it can be concluded that mango kernel starch can be used as indigenous and natural thickener for textile printing.