Analysis of Fabrics Treated with Dyes Extracted from Beetroot, Cuberoot and Roselle Indigenous Plants for Clothing and Textiles Education

Abstract

This study carried out an analysis of fabrics treated with dyes extracted from beetroot (Beta vulgaris), cuberoot (Lonchocarpuscyanescens) and roselle(Hibiscus sabdarifa) indegenous plants for Clothing and Textiles Education. Specifically, the study; extracted dyes from beetroot, cuberoot and roselle plants; applied the extracted dyes to cotton (100%), stone silk (60%silk,40%polyester) and polyester (100%) fabrics; tested the colorfastness, and ; organoleptic attributes and acceptability of the dyes on the fabrics. Three research questions and sixteen hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted Research and Development (R and D) design and was conducted at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State and at the International Textile Industries (ITI) Limited, Lagos. The study population was 41 persons comprising 17 Lecturers and 24 Postgraduate students from University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka.Data were collected using Gray Scale, Fastness Test Rating Scale (FTRS) and Organoleptic Attributes and Acceptability Evaluation (OAAE) Instruments. The instruments were face-validated by five lecturers from four departments of UNN. The internal consistency reliability coefficients of the four sections of the OAAE instrument were estimated using Cronbachalpha procedure which yielded 0.713, 0.917, 0.875 and 0.875 coefficients respectively. Boiling, steeping and solvent extraction techniques were used to extract nine dyes from the plants which were applied to the cotton (100%), stone silk (60% silk, 40%polyester) and polyester (100%), fabrics pre-mordanted with hydratedaluminum sulphate (alum), citric acid, tannic acid and no-mordant sample(control) using plain dyeing method to develop 108 prototype samples which were replicated in triplicate samples for the colorfastness tests. The colorfastness tests of the prototype samples were done using the ITI colorfastness methods according to the International Standard Organization (ISO, 105/A03; 1993), as follows; ITI msanual and Gray Scale for sunlight fastness; Shirely Development Limited (SDL) America washing machine (Auto wash) and Gray Scale procedure for washfastness; Electronic Crock meter machine and Gray scale method for rubbing, acidic and alkaline solution media and oven temperature 60 ± 20C for perspiration fastness. The organoleptic evaluation of the dyes on cotton fabric was done using OAAE instrument. Data were analyzed using general linear model for factorial experiments and descriptive statistics. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test hypotheses one to fifteen while t-test statistic was used to test hypothesis sixteen at 0.05 probability level.Findings include;Twenty-five (25) cotton prototype samples were fast to sunlight (3.00 ±.24) and thirty-five (35) were fast to dry rubbing (3.22 ± .34) according to ISO standards. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in the lightfastness (F=0.26), wash fastness (F=0.58) and dry rubbing fastness (F=0.95) mean ratings of the prototypes. There were significant differences (P<0.05) in the acidic (F=0.00) and alkaline (F=0.00) perspiration fastness of cotton prototype samples. Scheffe’s post hoc tests revealed that alum and tannic acid had comparable exceptional improvements on the fastness of the prototypes than citric acid and non mordanted samples. Tannic acid changed completely the colour of all beetroot dyed cotton fabric samples from brown to black during dyeing. Cuberoot dyes were the best colorfast dyes (3.44 ±.19).Roselle dyes had the poorest fastness ratings (1.77± .19) and changed to dirty blue- black colour in washing water Eight organoleptic attributes including colour hue; light brown for beetroot (3.63 ±.62), army green for cuberoot (4.00 ±,53) and maroon for roselle (3.83 ±.64) were identified and accepted. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the mean responses of lecturers and post graduate students on the acceptability of the organoleptic attributes of the beetroot (F=0.58), cuberoot (F=0.30) and roselle (F=0.09) dyes.