Extraction of Nat-ural Dye from Saf-fron Flower Waste and its Applica-tion on Pashmina fabric

Abstract

After harvesting the stigma from saffron flower, the petal part of the flower, which is violet in colour, is thrown as a waste. Pashmina shawl is a very delicate material and requires mild chemical treatments for dyeing. In the present study, an attempt has been made to utilize the petal part of the saffron flower to extract dye for application on the Pashmina shawl. The saffron flower waste was dried and ground into powder form. The natural dye was extracted by aqueous method at boiling conditions. The extracts were then applied on Pashmina wool at two different pH namely pH 4-5 and pH 7-8 with and without the use of mordant. The results showed that saffron flower waste extracts was able to dye the Pashmina shawl satisfactorily with very good washing and light fastness properties. It is also proposed to give an alkaline detergent treatment after dyeing to avoid tone variation of dyed fabric. Saffron flower extract dyed fabric at acidic pH without mordant showed zone of inhibition for the growth against Staphylococcus aureus.