Sustainable Coloration of Protein Fibers Using Kalanchoe-Pinnata Leaf Extract

Abstract

A natural dye for dyeing textiles was extracted from Kalanchoe-pinnata leaf powder using aqueous extraction and characterized by determining the radical scavenging activity (%), tannin content, flavonoid and phenolic content, FTIR, and UV-visible absorption analysis. Protein fabrics, i.e., wool, silk, soya, and milk were dyed by optimizing dyeing time, temperature, pH and MLR conditions with and without mordants. The dyed fabrics were assessed for their color strength, fastness properties, ultraviolet protection factor, and antibacterial properties. The result of the study shows that obtained Kalanchoe-pinnata leaf extract has good anti-oxidant properties being 84.92% of radical scavenging activity, possesses good coloration, affinity for textile material and functional properties being high content of tannin, flavonoid, and phenolic compounds. Wool and silk showed very good affinity for the dye extract and fastness behavior followed by soya and milk fabrics. Wool shows ultraviolet protection factor while there is no significant effect on silk, soya, and milk fabrics as these fabrics are very thin in structure. The aqueous extract as well as all the dyed samples also exhibit excellent anti-bacterial activity against S-aurous and E-coli. Thus, Kalanchoe-pinnata leaf extract can be a better sustainable substitute to synthetic dyes for dyeing of protein fabrics.

Keywords

• kalanchoe-pinnata
• anti-oxidant
• anti-microbial
• mordants
• scavenging activity (%)
• natural extract