Natural Dyes and Antimicrobials for Textiles

Abstract

Many studies on extraction, purification, and modification processes of natural dyes and antimicrobials, and their subsequent application on textiles in recent years, demonstrates the revival of natural dyeing and finishing. Natural dyes have been widely used in textile coloration since ancient times. However, with advent of man-made synthetic dyes in the mid-nineteenth century, the dye market has been captured due to variety of competitive properties of synthetic dyes. Such properties are lower cost, color variety, ability to dye synthetic fibers, and availability in large industrial scale. Subsequently the use of natural dyes fainted. However, most synthetic dyes raise serious problems for human health and cause environmental risks. As a consequence there is now a worldwide interest for the production of dyes from natural sources such as plants and microorganisms. The use of natural dyes in textile processing is increasing because of higher dyestuff quality, environmental compatibility and lower costs. In addition many natural dyes have inherently antimicrobial properties. Natural dyes are extracted from microorganisms and plant organs such as bark, leaf, root, fruit, seed, and flowers. Natural dyes are not only a rich and varied source of dyestuff, but also could be considered as safe, environmentally friendly and low cost treatments with additional benefit of coloring in a single stage. In this article, we review extraction and application of natural dyes on textiles as effective coloring and antibacterial agents. Extraction and treatment methods are discussed