VALUE ADDITION OF ERI SILK YARNS WITH ALLAMANDA GRANDIFLORA - A NATURAL COLOURANT

Abstract

Eri silk is one of the four varieties of silk mostly available in northeastern region of India. Recent trends in the world market of silk revealed that eri silk had tremendous potential as it was gifted with unique properties of protecting human body from some aliments as well as its use as fashionable dress and furnishing materials besides providing comfort of warmth. To suit the norms of the present national and international market, dyeing eri silk with natural dyes contributes to its value chain. The information on dyeing eri silk with natural dyes is very meager and requires to be established. New source such as Allamanda grandiflora was not used for dyeing textiles as per the available literature. Effort was made to standardise variables involved in extraction of the dyes and dyeing eri silk yarns. The standardisation procedures described under materials and methods were used and the evaluation was based on colour strength (K/S values) measured using colour flex spectrophotometer. Among the three mordanting methods, Pre mordanting method exhibited better   results compare with simultaneous and post mordanted samples. Among the five mordants, alum and chitin mordanted samples exhibited good fastness followed by tartaric acid, ferrous sulphate and stannous chloride mordanted samples.