Red cabbage anthocyanins content as a natural colorant for obtaining different color on wool fibers

Abstract

Purpose Finding blue colorants from natural sources is extremely difficult and, usually, the anthocyanin compounds are used for producing the blue color. This study aims to apply the Red Cabbage as a natural colorant to obtain different colors on wool yarn, as well as specify the optimum dyeing condition by response surface methodology for obtaining a blue color. Design/methodology/approach The effect of dyeing process parameters such as mordant concentration, dyeing time, pH of dyeing bath and dyeing temperature examined in the color characteristics of the dyed wool samples. Findings The obtained results indicated that the diverse colors achieve by varying the dyeing process parameters, which is in the range of 26° up to 271°. The non-mordanted dyed wool samples showed a red and red brownish color (Hue angle = 26° up to 70°), and the mordanted dyed wool samples showed a blue and blue-greenish color (Hue angle = 230° up to 271°). The obtained blue color with the optimized dyeing condition presented a considerable good wash and lightfastness. Originality/value This study provides a promising application of Red Cabbage as a natural colorant for obtaining different colors by varying the dyeing process parameters such as pH and stannous ion concentrations. The stannous ions yielded a co-pigmentation and presented a blue color on wool fibers, which is extremely difficult to obtain with natural colorant.