Almond shell as a natural colorant

Outer green of almond I has been used to extract natural dye for dyeing of wool, using different mordants such as iron (II) sulfate, copper (II) sulfate and potassium dichromate. Exhaust dyeing method has been applied using premordanting and simultaneous mordanting of fibres. It is observed that wool fibres can be dyed in different colours and depth of shades with almond shell dye. Control sample dyed without mordant shows light fastness of 2-3 and good wash fastness of 4-5 (bleeding) and 3 (colour change). Various colours have been obtained without mordant or by using quite lower amount of metallic mordant such as 0.8 % owf (0.16 g/L) and 2 % owf (0.4 g/L). All the samples exhibit satisfactory bleeding and colour change values. Iron (II) sulfate ensures the best light fastness. Improved light fastness is obtained using above-mentioned lower amounts of iron (II) sulfate and copper (II) sulfate. Potassium dichromate is found to be less effective than iron (II) sulfate and copper (II) sulfate on the light fastness. Burgundy-reddish shades which are rare in natural dyes have been obtained using this mordant. As a novel alternative and potential natural dye, almond shell extract can be used to get various colours and shades with satisfactory fastness properties.