Philippines Develops Environmentally Friendly Natural Dyes For Textiles

When synthetic dyes appear in the global market, the art of producing natural dyes is almost lost.

Today, natural dyes are coming back to the market. Natural dyes are becoming more and more popular due to the increasing awareness of environmental protection.

Natural dyes are from rhizomes, bark, wood, berries, lichens, insects, shellfish and flowers.

The demand for more environmentally-friendly dyestuffs is increasing. Many research and development plans have been spawned in the market. These plans will support the production of the same environment-friendly textile products.

The Philippines Textile Research Institute (PTRI) has been able to meet the market demand through some projects, such as the selection of natural dye powder production scale and the application of textile technology.

With the help of the technical monitor of the Philippines industrial and energy research and Development Commission (PCIERD-DOST), PTRI has developed several pilot scale production of dye resources, namely: mahogany, mahogany, Hainan peach, Talisay, ginger, tamarind and indigo.

According to project leader Julius Lea o, the main resources of these natural dyes show that the color fastness test results are satisfactory.

In addition, the color uniformity and reproducibility of these selected dye resources have been improved and have been identified.

Compared with liquid dyes, these environmental friendly natural dyes have higher affinity with fabric materials.

Similarly, compared with synthetic dyes, natural dye powder has good shelf life and repeatability.

It has good color fastness to washing and is light in weight.

Because natural dye powder has market potential, PTRI is looking for potential technology providers.