Eco-Friendly Natural Dyes: A Comparative Study with Direct Dyes Available to Purchase

With an increasing awareness of environmental pollution and health hazards associated with synthesis, processing and use of synthetic dyes, there is a worldwide interest in natural dyes for textiles. This paper presents a comparative study of natural dyes and direct dyes in terms of eco-friendliness and their various colour-fastness properties. It also reveals that natural dyes can be used safely as they contain metals and formaldehyde within the Okotex limits and do not contain amines. The fastness properties of natural dyes are found to be satisfactory.