Orange peels waste as a low cost cotton natural dye

The further usage of vegetable waste from orange as textile dyes is presented in this paper. The work is focused on carotenoids dyestuff extracted from orange peels. A statistical mixture-design technique was used to study the effects of different solvents (acetone, hexane, and ethanol) and their mixtures on the carotenoids yield from the orange peel wastes. The experimental results and their response-surface models showed that the combination of solvents increased the total carotenoids yields compared with that obtained by any of the individual solvents. Acetone-hexane-ethanol (50-46-4 %) mixture extracted more carotenoids than did other mixtures. Unmordanted and post-mordanted bleached cotton fabric were dyed. Three percent alum of the weight fraction of cotton were used as mordant. Colour measurements (K/S, L*, a*, b*) and fastness properties as light and wash fastness were tested