Effect of Perilla (Perilla Frutescens) Dye on Silk

Prasad, Smita
Plants are the major source of natural colourants. Almost all their parts such as stem, leaves, fruits, seeds and pills are used for extracting natural color. They also have antimicrobial, antifungal and other medicinal value. It was found from the present study that perilla dye can be successfully used for dyeing of silk fabric. The dye gives a bright red color. Shades of red color is obtained when mordanted with natural and syenthetic mordants.

Keywords: Natural dyes | Natural Pigment | silk | Perilla plant

Introduction
Consumer’s demand for eco-friendly textiles and eco-friendly dyes led to the revival of natural dyes for textiles, with the newer energy efficient dyeing process and more reproducible shade developing processes. Perilla (PerillaFrutescens) dye, which is selected for the present study is a traditional crop of China, India, Japan, Korea, Thailand and other Asian countries. The seed oil of Perilla plant is used for cooking, as a drying oil and as a fuel. The foliage is used as a potherb, or medicine, and for food coloring. The foliage is also distilled to produce an essential oil for flavoring. The plants are grown as ornamentals. In Japan the foliage also provides a red food coloring and specialized red-leaved perilla varieties are used in the production of pickled plums. The Perilla pigment is most stable under cold, acidic condition.The acidic media exhibited maximum per cent absorption for jatropha, lantana, hamelia and euphorbia dye, while kilmora and walnut showed good results in alkaline medium. The result obtained from different experiments leads to the optimization of a standard recipe for a particular dye-mordant-fibre combination as stated by Dixit and Jahan (2005).

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