A natural dye extracted from the roots of alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria) was applied on cotton fabric by pad-steam dyeing technique. The study was designed to evaluate the colour fastness and tensile properties of dyed cotton after using various mordants, cationizing agents, UV absorbers and crosslinkers with this natural dye. Metallic mordants included aluminium sulphate, copper sulphate, ferric chloride, potassium dichromate and hydrated potassium aluminum sulphate or alum. Alkanet root extract produced variety of green shades with different dyeing auxiliaries. Better wash, light, crocking fastness; good colour coordinates such as chroma, hue, colour strength and increase in tensile strength was accomplished with post-mordanting of CuSO4. Cationization of cotton with quaternary ammonium compound (both pre-treatment and post-treatment) and post-finishing with soft polyurethane emulsion has enhanced the fastness properties, tensile strength as well as relative colour strength (K/S) , whereas, reactive UV absorber based on oxalanilide and heterocyclic compound as UV absorber greatly increased the light fastness of alkanet dyed cotton. Crosslinkers applied with alkanet dye on cotton (methylolation product based on glyoxalmonourein, modified dimethyloldihydroxyethylene urea, modified dihydroxy ethylene urea) also improved the fastness but could not bring further development in the shade and K/S value of the dyed samples.


Shahnaz Parveen Khattak, Shabana Rafique, Tanveer Hussain, Faiza Inayat and Bashir Ahmad