Design Process of Natural Dye Powder Production from Seeds of Areca catechu L. and its Application in Industry

Abstract

Natural dyes have become alternative of non toxic, environtmentally friendly colorants, usually agro-renewable source and exhibit better biodegradability. Instant natural dyes, e.g. powder extracts, are still limited. Areca catechu L. is one of dye plant that has been traditionally used on batik and craft dyeing. The phenolic substances, as coloring matter, from areca seeds are varying in degree of maturation. For these reasons, design process of natural dye powder production from areca seeds by spray drying and its application in textile dyeing and transparent soap coloring was studied. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of maturation degree of areca seeds (unripe, ripe) and binder treatment (without a binder, arabic gum 2% w/v) to the characteristics of areca seeds powder extracts, and determine the effect of areca seeds dye powder and fixative agents (without a fixative agent, alum, calcium oxide and ferrosulfate) to the colour of two types of fabric (cotton, silk) and the color changes to washing and sun drying. The objective of study about application of areca seeds powder extracts in transparent soap was to determine the effect of areca seeds extracted powders and the type of vegetable oil to the characteristics of transparent soap. Areca seeds powder extracts being used in this study were areca seed powder extracts without a binder and areca seed extracted powder with a binder (arabic gum 2% w/w). Two types of vegetable oil for making transparent soap were used in this study namely coconut oil and mixed of coconut oil and palm oil (15:5 w/w). As a control, there were transparent soaps made without addition of areca seeds powders. The results of this study exhibited unripe areca seeds produced powder extracts with higher in yield, moisture content and total phenolic content but had no significant effect on pH and lower in bulk density and solubility than ripe areca seeds. Arabic gum treatment produced powder extracts with higher in yield, and solubility, but had no significant effect on moisture content and lower in bulk density, pH and total phenolic content than the treatment without binder. The areca seeds powder extracts had the yield ranges between 5,59-13,90%, moisture content ranges between 5,19% - 7,41%, bulk density ranges between 0,3720 – 0,5586 g/ml, solubility (on water) ranges between 94,10% – 99,25%, pH ranges between 4,98 – 5,31, total phenolic content ranges between 30,50 – 67,07% and oHue ranges between 39,67 – 62,06 (red and yellow red). FTIR spectrum showed presence of functional group of OH, CH, CO and aromatic structure in areca seeds dye powder. The areca seed powder extracts exhibited cytotoxic activity against brine shrimp larvae with LC50 values ranging from 279,53-1093,25 ppm. The fixative agents had significant effects on colour of cotton and silk fabric. Alum caused the depth of fabric colour as same as or lower than colored fabric without a fixative agent (color ranges in red and yellow red). The highest viii depth of fabric colour is given by ferrosulfate was followed by calcium oxide. Calcium oxide give the little color changes on both cotton and silk fabric in washing treatment, while ferrosulfate give the little color changes on both of them in sun drying. Transparent soap from all combinations of treatment had colour range yellow red. Mixed of coconut oil and palm oil (15:5 w/w) gave higher foam stability and lower hardness than coconut oil but did not give significant effect on moisture content and pH value. Type of areca seeds extracted powder had no significant difference in moisture content, hardness and pH value but had significant effect on foam stability of transparent soap. The presence of arabic gum in areca seeds extracted powder enhanced foam stability of transparent soap from coconut oil and reduced color change in transparent soap after six months of storage.