Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, 25(1), 30-36 (2020) ISSN: 2469-9062 (print), 2467-9240 (e) Doi: https://doi.org/10.3126/jist.v25i1.29421 © IOST, Tribhuvan University Research Article FEASIBILITY STUDY OF THE Euphorbia pulcherrima PLANT EXTRACT AS NATURAL DYE WITH DIFFERENT MORDANTS FOR FABRIC DYEING Netra Lal Bhandari *1 , Kabita Bist 1 , Jyoti Ghimire 1 , Santosh Chaudhary 1,2 , Durga Prasad Pandey 2 , Rameshwar Adhikari 2 1 Department of Chemistry, Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal 2 Research Centre for Applied Science and Technology (RECAST), Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal * Corresponding author: netra.tu.edu@gmail.com (Received: August 11, 2019; Revised: December 23, 2019; Re-revised: May 22, 2020; Accepted: May 29, 2020) ABSTRACT In the present study, an attempt has been made to utilize the natural plant dye extracted from petals of Euphorbia pulcherrima (locally called as Lalupate) via green techniques using water as solvent at boiling condition, for fabrics dyeing in combinations with natural mordants such as Aloe vera, Marcha (traditional yeast used in fermentation), and Chuk (traditional concentrated lemon juice), and artificial mordants like K 2 Cr 2 O 7, CuSO 4 , and FeSO 4 . The dye extract has been characterized by thin-layer chromatography (TLC), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and optical microscopy (OM). The results have shown that the dyeing of the fabrics with the E. pulcherrima dye in combination with K 2 Cr 2 O 7 as well as Chuk is effective concerning wash fastness, dry fastness, and colorfastness. Keywords: Dyeing, Euphorbia pulcherrima, GC-MS, Mordants, Natural dyes INTRODUCTION The synthetic dyes are prone to release harmful chemicals that might be allergic and carcinogenic to human beings (Das et al., 2016). On the other hand, propelled by the ever-increasing awareness and concerns regarding the environmental protection (Jothi, 2008) the natural dyes obtained from different parts of plants are getting increased attention and their use in industries is evolving as a greener, safe and sustainable alternative (Nwonye & Ezema, 2017; Patel 2011) in textiles, food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products. Beside safety issues, the minimal adverse environmental impacts, renewability from natural resources and, color pay-off are some of the advantages of natural dyes. Nevertheless, they have some disadvantages in terms of cost, ease of availability, color yield and varieties, limited shades, blending problems, and inadequate fastness (Adebayo et al., 2007; Ramprasath et al., 2017). The natural dyes are generally more expensive than synthetic ones, due to their seasonal limitation in source materials availability. Their colors and pigments are variable as well, since depending on plant parts such as fruit, flower, seed, bark or leaves, the hues can vary. The uniformity can be difficult to achieve, in natural dyes as the ingredients- composition in particular plant materials may change from one season to another. This makes it challenging to standardize a recipe for natural dyes fabrication. The extraction of primary color and secondary color development depends on the plant material harvesting time, age and geographical distribution (Campbell, 2019). In particular, most of the disadvantages of natural dyes in textile dyeing can be overcome by using non-toxic and beneficial chemicals as mordants which produce an affinity between the fabric and the dye (Kulkarni et al., 2011) because the mordants enhance the chemical bonding of the natural dye with fibers (Samanta et al., 2018). However, all types of mordants of metal salts might not be considered as the bio-friendly (Banerjee et al. 2018) for dyeing of clothes. In this regard, it is urgent to search for bio-friendly natural mordants and check their viability and sustainability for seeking to have better fastness properties against the toxic synthetic mordant of metal salts. Similarly, the natural dyes are color-fast with fibers; therefore, the use of mordant, which increases the dye fastness to the fabric is often necessary. A mordant is a fundamental material that is used for fixing natural dyes to the fibers, and it also improves the take-up quality, the color, and brightness of the fabric. The mordants are usually metallic salts of aluminum, chromium, iron, copper, and tin, as well as other natural products like tanning agents, wood ash, stale urine, acidic fruits extracts, and fungal products (Das et al., 2016; Kumar & Prabha, 2018; Ramprasath et al., 2017). Nepal has rich bio-diversity with about 182 indigenous dye yielding plants (Kunwar & Bussmann, 2009) and the plant of Euphorbia pulcherrima (commonly known as poinsettia & Lalupate in Nepali) is one of the widely distributed plants of Nepal including plants of Syangja district of Nepal. It is widely grown in the mid-hills of Nepal, and its uppermost red-colored leaves including flower parts were reported to be beneficial for dyeing many natural fibers like allo, cotton, jute, banana, sisal fibers, wool, and cotton clothes (Bhandari et al., 2019;