Extraction of eco-friendly natural dyes from Justicia adhatoda leaves and their application on wool and silk fabrics

Natural dyes are widely used for textile industries, due to their harmless effects and harmful consequences of synthetic dyes. Natural dyes work on cotton, silk and wool etc. In this article, the leaves of Justicia adhatoda are used as a colorant for dyeing of wool and silk fabrics. Various extracts (aqueous, butanol, chloroform and hexane) of Justicia adhatoda leaves have been prepared and investigated. The obtained dyes yield a variety of shades and are processed with mordants such as alum and copper sulphate. From the K/S values, it is found that hexane extracted dye generated maximum color depth among the four solvent systems. Also, the dyed wool fabrics show higher K/S values than the silk fabrics. The use of mordants gives rise to better dyeing, exhibiting darker shade and improved color strength than without mordanting conditions. The fastness properties of samples are good to very good (4 to 4-5), suggesting the formation of dye-mordant complex.