Presentation by Dr Shereen Bahloul at Cairo Textile Week 2022 Conference held at Cairo, Egypt

1. Natural
Dyes
Prof.Dr. Shereen Omar Bahlool
Head Of Chemistry Of Cotton &Textile Fibers
Department -Cotton Research Institute- ARC

2. Introduction
(Dyes & colors)
 Color preference impacts the eye.

3. Introduction
 Color is a catalyst for marketing within the
fashion industry;
 Before feeling the fabric, trying on the size, or
considering the manufacturing processes,
COLOR is the first thing consumers notice
about a garment.
 A dye is normally used in a solution, which is
capable of being fixed to fabrics.

4. Classification
A very common classification of the dye is
based on the source of material,
a) Natural Dyes
b) Synthetic Dyes

5. Natural Dyes
 Natural dyes comes from
natural sources like plants,
animals, insects, and
minerals .
 The majority of natural dyes
are Vegetable dyes from
plant sources.
 Sources of natural dyes are
everywhere. Dyes can be
extracted from roots, fruits
flowers and leaves.

6. Natural Dyes
 Until the mid-19th
century plants were the
primary source of dye.
That was before the
discovery that dye
pigments could be
produced through
chemistry.

7. Synthetic Dyes
Dyes produced by chemical means are more
easily applied to fibers, do not require as much
time in preparation, and stand up better to
repeated washing and exposure to sunlight.
They are cheaper to produce, brighter and easy
to apply.
Examples of synthetic dyes are disperse,
reactive, direct, acid and azo dyes.

8. Advantage:
Natural Dyes
Natural dyes are cheap.
These dyes are collected from nature and
easily decomposed in nature after using
and they do not pollute the environment
while destroying them after end use.
Research can be carried out on These green
dyes to replace toxic synthetic petroleum
based dyes.

9. Natural Dyes
VS
Synthetic Dyes
 It has been a matter of discussion that
synthetic dyes give a superior bright
and a wide range of colors where the
natural dyes give only limited or dull
colors shades.
 Research indicated that some dyes
can protect human from ultra-violate
radiation and others have
antimicrobial properties.

10. Natural Dyes
VS
Synthetic Dyes
 Cloth dyed with natural dyes provides the feel of nature
that cannot be obtained after using synthetic dyes.
 Due to their excellent nontoxic and non-allergenic
characteristics.
 People of all ages can use the clothing dyed with natural
dyes. As these dyes do not cause any harm to the baby
skin. Their colors and Shades are comfortable and soft
feel.

11. Natural Dyes
VS
Synthetic Dyes

12. Importance of
Natural Dyes
 Natural dyes are important since they are better than
synthetic dyes in many ways.
 They are obtained from the renewable resource.
 natural dyes are biodegradable
 Natural dyes are pleasing to the eye due to its derived
from nature.
 Moreover, uses of natural dyes in textile industry can
reduce environmental pollution. Nowadays, the use of
synthetic dyes in textile industry is increasing rapidly.
Since many of these products are resistant to biological
degradation, this cause water pollution when released as
effluent into the water sources

13. Historical
Natural Dyes:-
 The eldest natural dye used is indigo
that has been used for the last 4000
years. It is one of the most ancient
natural dyes used by mankind in
textiles.
 Indigo is about 2-3 feet long plant,
cultivated on thousands of acres in
India. The whole plant is used for
extraction of dye.

14. Natural -
Indigo
 Indigo has more than a 4000 year history, from
its beginnings as a dye stuff.
 This dye gives deep blue color on almost all
natural fibers: wool, silk, cotton. It has a good
fastness to washing, crocking and Light. (Vat
category of dyes).
 Uses of indigo dyes are on the cotton yarns
those are mainly for denim fabrics ( blue jeans
or indigo denim).
 Denim industries dependent on indigo dyes
those are derived from natural sources
 Should natural dyes be employed again on
industrial scales??

18. COULD NATURAL
DYES BE A SOLLUTION
ON AN INDUSTRIAL
SCALE?

20. Some natural dyes are high in tannins,
which can adhere to fibers without the use
of mordants.
Greener approaches, such as bio-mordants
and enzymes, still show room for
improvement, chemical modification
methods might also guarantee dye fixation,
but we must question about environmental
sustainability.

21. This is an area where
small brands and
start ups can utilize
natural dyes, toxin
free and enrich their
designs with the
narrative of
sustainably produced
color.
The history contained
within natural dyes
is also , an engaging
consumer tool.

22. WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN
FOR THE FUTURE OF COLOR
&TEXTILE & FASHION?
 Factories costs a lot for new infrastructure to
process their water wastes which are too high,
 we as consumers and humans must focus on the
importance of the environmental issue,
 Putting pressure on the biggest brands for
transparency in supply chains, and adjusting our
expectations as consumers to reject the chemical
hazards from our clothing are ways we can
individually make an impact to enforce factories to
reduce the dyes and chemicals from their water
effluent , use more natural dyes and make a positive
change.

23. Natural dyes
extracted from
Wastes:
 Agro-wastes : like ( onion outer skin ,
banana peel , orange peel , ….even leaves of
the plants)
 Many studies done at Cotton Research
Institute – ARC.
 To investigate the environmental impact of
extracting anthocyanins, quinones,
and carotinoids from all agro-wastes in
fruit, vegetable and plants processing and
subsequent application to the dyeing
process.

24. Sustainability of
Natural Dyes:-
Natural dyes are compounds with their eco-
friendly properties.
These dyes are recyclable, biodegradable and
decomposable in nature.
They are easily decomposed in soil after end
use due to their sustainability.

26. NATURAL DYES: ECO-SMART
SOLUTION TO MITIGATE
CLIMATE CHANGE
 Synthetic dyes such as: Azo dyes are used widely for
dyeing which are known to be carcinogenic, toxic and
allergic.
 These dyes are responsible to change the climate by
emitting greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere.
 Due to hazardous impacts of this kind of synthetic dyes
the European Union (EU) banned their use, which
increased the scope and demand of natural dyes.
 Keeping in view the economic importance of natural fiber
textiles and growing problem of global warming owing to
synthetic dyes,

27. Many studies were carried out at
COTTON RESEARCH
INSTITUTE – AGRICULTURE
RESEARCH CENTER -to
extract eco-friendly dyes from
easily and available agro-wastes
and investigated their coloring
ability on cotton and cotton-blend
fabrics.