Dye Fed Silkworms to Produce Naturally Coloured Silk Cocoons

Abstract

Silk has been one of such luxuries we enjoy by sacrificing the insects that produce it for our benefit. As if this savagery wasn’t enough our dyeing of this silk has used up unfathomable water and caused its pollution to a considerable degree. In spite of all these inimical consequences to silk production, it still holds a place in the journey to sustainability because of its strength, durability and more of all its sentimental value to humans that discourage the use and throw frame of mind associated with clothing which has developed in the awake of this fast fashion epoch. In this context we discuss a method to make silk production more economical and less polluting and waste generating. The silkworms are fed special diets with dyes incorporated into it so that their silk glands take u these dyes and naturally spin colored cocoons. This abolishes the repercussions of toxic dye effluents generated during traditional dyeing process. Environment-friendly method to dye silk can be efficient by finding the right kind of dye that has positive partition coefficients (not very high), low isoelectric point, molecular weights less than 400 g/mol, and highly lipophilic.

Keywords

• silk
• silkworms
• cocoons
• dyeing
• fashion
• sustainability