Utilisation of Sepalika (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis) Flowers, a Temple Waste as a Source for a Potential Colouring Agent for Textile Substrates Used in the Textile Industry

Abstract

The island of Sri Lanka is a mass of land where the plant life is very rich and vibrant with allshades of green colour leaves and multicoloured flowers. There are around 3500 flora speciesin Sri Lanka and about one quarter of that is endemic to the country. A huge amount offlowers are widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions in Sri Lanka.These flowersare used as decoration, medicinal purposes or for offering to Buddha and God. A surveyreport on flora of Ceylon reveals that 40% of the total productions of flowers are unsold andwasted daily, they are thrown into water or dumped into landside causing water pollution aswell as environmental pollution. These wasted flowers can be used in various ways and wecan get wealth from waste materials. This research reveals one of the options of wastemanagement and pollution control strategies.

A vast array of colourants obtained from natural sources such as plants, insects/animals andmicrobes have been scrutinized in recent past for their use in different kinds of applications.Research into new natural dye sources along with eco-friendly, robust and cost effectivetechnologies for their processing and application have greatly aided in widening the scope ofnatural dyes in various traditional and advanced application disciplines. Today textile andfashion trade is a global industry of significance. However, from a national perspectivebecoming greener by using natural dyes may at this stage of transition prove to be quitebeneficial. This study explores such an opportunity.

Sepalika flowers (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis) (Harshingar, Parijat) belongs to the familyOleaceae. The flower has white petals with an orange calyx. Nyctanthes stems have beenfound to be a rich source of antioxidants. The aqueous extracts of the flower, calyx and petalswere evaluated for cotton dyeing and found to be excellent fixing properties of dyes onfabric. This signifies that the main colour yielding part is in the orange coloured calyx of theflower. In this research, attempts have been made to carry out an innovative study with theNyctanthes flower as a part of an exploration for a cheap natural dye source. In this study,Sepalika flower extract was used to dye bleached cotton fabrics with metal mordants toachieve acceptable colour shades and fastness levels. The dyed fabrics with Sepalika flowerextracts were investigated with pre-mordanting, simultaneous mordanting and postmordanting conditions at optimum dyeing parameters. These dyed fabrics were investigatedfor their fastness properties. These fastness properties showed excellent to moderate results.

In this research innovative dyeing with Sepalika flower extracts were shown to give gooddyeing results. Pretreatment with 1-2% metal mordant and by using 5% of plant extract (owf)was found to be optimum and showed very good fastness properties for bleached cottonfabrics.