Abstract

• Indian almond (TerminaliacatappaL.) leaves are the waste of Indian almondtree and the tannin compound present in the leaves extract can be an alternative colorant for synthetic dyes. Indian almondtrees are abundant and the extraction of colorant from leaves is an effective way to utilize the waste leaves as natural colorant. This research aims to extract the natural colorant from Indian almondleaves and the extracted colorant was utilized in the coloration of cotton fabric. The extraction applied in this study was solvent extraction method in which the leaf samples were extracted using ethanol. The colorant extracted from Indian almondleaves was characterized and identified by using UV-vis Spectrophotometry and FT-IR methods. The physico-chemical properties of extracted colorant were investigated. In this research, extracted colorant was applied in the coloration of cotton fabric with and without mordant. Before coloration, the types of mordant on the absorbance of extracted colorant was examined by using different mordants such as alum, CuSO4, FeSO4, K2Cr2O7and CaO, respectively. The effect of mordanting methods on the color development of extract on dyed cotton fabric was determined by using three different methods like pre mordanting, post mordanting and combined mordanting. The analysis of dyeing time on the color development of extracted colorant on dyed cotton fabrics was performed. The high absorbance value (0.928) was observed using alum mordant. Among three different methods, the pre mordanting method was preferable because the color absorption on cotton fabric was great and obvious color change was not occurred. Dyeing time 40 minprovided the better color absorption and color remaining on cotton fabric. For mordanted and unmordanted cotton fabric, the color development of extracted colorant on the cotton fabric such as the color fastness test to sunlight, washing and wet rubbing test were carried out. The results indicated that the colorant extracted from Indian almondleaves could be utilized as natural colorant for the coloration of cotton fabric in the presence of mordant.