Innovative Plant-Based Mordants and Colorants for Application on Cotton Fabric

Figures & data

Figure 1. Land and water pollution at an old copper mine near St. Day, Cornwall, UK (Alamy Ltd. 2021).

Figure 2. Biomordant Aluminum from Eurya acuminate dc var euprista Karth bond formation with anthraquinone dye molecule from Rubia cordifolia (PerkinElmer Informatics 2017).

Figure 3. Ultraviolet property of cotton fabrics treated with biomordant chitosan (Bonet-Aracil et al. 2016).

Table 1. Light and wash fastness properties of cotton fabrics mordanted with Amla (Prabhu, Teli, and Waghmare 2011)

Natural Color	Mordant	Light Fastness	Wash Fastness Change in Color	Wash Fastness Staining on Cotton/Wool
Turmeric	No	2	2–3	4
	Amla	4	4–5	5
Henna	No	1	2	5
	Amla	4	4	5
Pomegranate	No	3	2	4
	Amla	5	4–5	5
Madder	No	2	2	5
	Amla	4	4–5	5

Table 2. Natural mordants and colorants on natural textile substrate. (Ismal, Yıldırım, and Ozdogan 2014) (Mahreni, Priambudi, and Sugiarti 2019) (Guesmi etal. 2013) (Hosen etal. 2021) (Barahapurkar, Purwar, and Baldua 2020) (Habib etal. 2021)

Natural Mordant and colorants	Substrate fabric	Colors obtained	Techniques utilized	Fastness properties	Critical analysis
Almond shell, thuja, pomegranate rind, rosemary	Wool	Rose, brown, cinnamon, burgundy	CIE L a* b*	A very good wash and light fastness (Ismal, Yıldırım, and Ozdogan 2014).	High M:L ratio of 1:50, FTIR, UV-vis analysis were not provided.
Kesumba, pegagan leaves	Cotton	Orange	CIE L a* b*, FTIR, Response surface methodology	A good wash and lightfastness (Mahreni, Priambudi, and Sugiarti 2019).	Too high M:L ratio 1:50.
Chlorophyll, prickly pear	Wool	Reddish purple	Ultrasonic bath, silica gel column chromatography, mass spectroscopy, UV-Vis.	Avery good wash, rub, and Lightfastness (Guesmi etal. 2013).	A 90% acetone extraction, 100% methanol, 100% ethanol, Petroleum ether leading to emissions.
Turmeric, lemon, colocasia	Cotton	Yellow	K/S, hue changing test	A good wash, rub, and perspiration fastness (Hosen etal. 2021).	Very high temperature of 90°C indicate high energy demand hence not sustainable.
Banana pseudo-stem sap, wool flower	Silk	-	K/S, FTIR	Moderate wash, rub, and lightfastness (Barahapurkar, Purwar, and Baldua 2020) .	Flowers were boiled in an iron container.
Arjun bark, zeera, lili elchi, harmal, neem	Cotton	Reddish-yellow	Ultrasonic bath, CIELa*b*, (Habib et al. 2021)	-	Acidic Methanolic extraction, hence not ecological, Fastness properties were overlooked.

Table 3. Cotton fabric specifications

Fabric	Weave structure	Fiber type	Yarn count, tex		Density		Fabric weight, g/m^2
			Warp	weft	Warp, ends/5 cm	Weft, picks/5 cm
Calico (OC)	Plain weave	100% cotton	30	30	60	60	140

Table 4. Profiles of plants as a source of sustainable mordants and colorants for the natural textile substrate

Plant name	Botanical name	Common name	Part of plant used	Potential functionality
Oak bark (OB) Standard	Quercus pedunculata	Royal oak, Duir, White oak, English oak	Bark	Anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory
Mugwort herb (MH)	Artemisia vulgaris	Common Mugwort, Nagadamni, Felon Herb	Leaves	Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal
Rue herb (RH)	Ruta graveolens	Common Rue, Herb of Grace, Herby grass, Garden Rue	Leaves	Anti-bacterial
Black cherry stem (BCS)	Prunus serotina	Black cherry	Stems	Anti-microbial
Hops flowers (HF)	Humulus Volubilis	Hops, Hoppen, Beer flower, Hop Vine	Flowers	Antioxidant

Figure 4. Herbal extraction is in progress.

Figure 5. The coloration of pre-mordanted cotton fabrics with hops flowers. Mordanted with Mugwort herb, b) Mordanted with Rue herb and c) Mordanted with Black cherry stems.

Figure 6. Cotton fabric mordanted with mugwort herb and colored with hops flowers.

Figure 7. Cotton fabric mordanted with rue herb and colored with hops flowers.

Figure 8. Cotton fabric mordanted with black cherry stems and colored with hops flowers.

Figure 9. Cotton fabric mordanted with oak bark and colored with hops flowers.

Table 5. Color values were obtained on cotton fabrics treated with innovative herbs

Samples	Absorbance/Scattering, K/S (400 nm)	L*	a*	b*
CFO	2.45	97.56	3.13	−13.31
OB	3.16	84.41	6.96	5.45
MH	3.23	88.45	4.01	3.14
RH	5.36	90.60	0.87	10.24
BCS	4.27	89.68	3.75	5.42

*Note, CFO is Cotton Fabric Original; OB is Oak Bark; MH is Mugwort Herb; RH is Rue Herb; BCS is Black Cherry Stem.

L* is Lightness/Darkness of color; a* is redness/greenness of color; b* is yellowness/blueness of color.

Table 6. Color values of pre-treated & colored cotton fabrics were obtained on Datacolor 600

Samples	K/S (400 nm)	L*	a*	b*
CF	2.81	96.27	3.21	−14.20
HF	4.03	93.55	0.38	0.76
OB + HF	4.31	86.89	4.53	8.07
MH + HF	4.67	90.18	1.19	9.86
RH + HF	6.48	90.07	0.27	12.46
BCS + HF	7.05	89.13	1.38	13.06

Note, CF is Cotton Fabric & HF is Hops Flowers.

Figure 10. AAS elemental analysis of herbs.

Figure 11. UV-Vis spectrophotometer analysis of cotton fabrics processed with herbs.

Table 7. The mean transmittance (%) values as acquired on treated cotton fabrics

Wavelength (nm)	Effects	Transmittance (%)
		OC	HFC	OBHFC	MLHFC	RLHFC	BCSHFC
VR, 700–401	No harm	37.38	32.64	28.44	31.02	32.88	30.77
UVA, 315–400	Damage skin	67.37	16.60	12.76	19.06	14.60	13.36
UVB, 314–280	Damage skin	180.86	21.87	10.19	29.50	16.46	12.98
UVC, 200–279	Most harmful	265.68	36.24	25.95	58.42	38.12	32.39

Table 8. Fastness properties of cotton fabrics mordanted and colored with biomaterials

Samples	Wash fastness		Light	Rub – dry	Rub – wet
	Color change	Color staining
Hops flowers (HF)	1	4–5	3	4–5	4–5
OB + HF	2–3	4–5	3	4–5	4
MH + HF	1	4–5	4	4–5	4
RH + HF	2	4–5	4	4–5	4–5
BCS + HF	2	4–5	3	4–5	4–5

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