Natural Dyeing of Cotton, Wool and Silk with the Stem and Leaves Extract of Illicium Griffithii

Illicium griffithii (local name - Lissi) belongs to the family Illiaceae. It produces yellow colored natural dye from its stem and leaves, which has been used to dye textiles for the first time here. In the present study, innovative dyeing with Illicium griffithii has been shown to give good dyeing results. Pre-mordanting with 1-2% metal mordants viz. alum, copper sulphate, ferrous sulphate, potassium dichromate, stannous chloride and stannic chloride, and using 5% (o.w.f.) of plant aqueous solution of the extract, is found to be satisfactory and shows very good fastness properties for cotton, wool and silk fabrics. The innovative solvent extraction of the dry stem-leaves of Illicium griffithii is an easy process; the solvent is removed/recovered and the aqueous extract is used for dyeing. The CIELab and color strength (K/S) of the dyed fabrics are also evaluated. The superiority of solvent extraction over conventional extraction has been established through this study.