Vol. 12, Issue 6 (2023)

Author(s):
Sneha Gargi and Meenu Srivastava

Abstract:
Natural dyes which were ignored during last sixty years into background by synthetic dyes, are recently again becoming object of consumer interest due to awareness of possible risks arisen by synthetic dyes. These days the consumer interest towards natural dyes is increased because natural dyes are eco- friendly and non- toxic in the nature. Although, ecological awareness among the public has led to a renewed investigation of natural dyes, a lot of work has been carried out for dyeing of textiles using natural dyes but the work on printing is very limited. In order to fulfil the gap, a study was conducted to standardization of printing paste using two natural dyes Annatto and Arjuna were selected along with thickening agent guar gum powder, fixing agents chitosan, two mordants myrobalan and alum and cold pressed coconut oil as plasticizer to develop direct prints on silk fabric. The natural dye was extracted by aqueous extraction method followed by ultra-sonication of the dye extract. The two print paste combinations were developed with the combinations of two natural dyes and printing auxiliaries using standardized recipe. The screen printed silk fabric samples exhibits very good to excellent colour fastness properties and the developed prints was found highly acceptable among consumers for use as home textiles.