Natural Dye from Eucalyptus Leaves and Application for Wool Fabric Dyeing by Using Padding Techniques

Abstract

Natural dyes are known for their use in colouring of food substrate, leather, wood as well as natural fibers like wool, silk, cotton and flax as major areas of application since ancient times. Natural dyes have a wide range of shades that can be obtained from various parts of plants, including roots, bark, leaves, flowers and fruits (Allen, 1971). Since the advent of widely available and cheaper synthetic dyes in 1856 having moderate to excellent colour fastness properties, the use of natural dyes having poor to moderate wash and light fastness has declined to a great extent. However, recently there has been revival of the growing interest on the application of natural dyes on natural fibers due to worldwide environmental consciousness (Samanta & Agarwal, 2009). Although this ancient art of dyeing with natural dyeing with natural dyes withstood the ravages of time, a rapid decline in natural dyeing continued due to the wide available of synthetic dyes at an economical price. However, even after a century, the use of natural dyes never erodes completely and they are still being used. Thus, natural dyeing of different textiles and leathers has been continued mainly in the decentralized sector for specialty products along with the use of synthetic dyes in the large scale sector for general textiles owing to the specific advantages and limitations of both natural dyes and synthetic dyes. The use of non-toxic and ecofriendly natural dyes on textiles has become a matter of significant importance because of the increased environmental awareness in order to avoid some hazardous synthetic dyes. However, worldwide the use of natural dyes for the colouration of textiles has mainly been confined to craftsman, small scale dyers and printers as well as small scale exporters and producers dealing with high valued ecofriendly textile production and sales (Samanta & Agarwal, 2009; Bechtold & Mussak, 2009; Vankar, 2007). Recently, a number of commercial dyers and small textile export houses have started looking at the possibilities of using natural dyes for regular basis dyeing and printing of textiles to overcome environmental pollution caused by