LAUSR

ABSTRACT Acacia nilotica an important medicinal plant of topical and sub-tropical regions belonging to family Fabaceae of genus Acacia is a source of many active phytochemicals (secondary metabolites) have been explored to study their useful utilization in different fields. The versatile utility of this plant as a source of timber, a source of fodder, tannin, and gum, and fuel has prompted researchers to deepen investigations for full utilization of this plant. To exploit its use as a colorant for textiles, this research study investigates for the first time pre-mordanting of wool with binary and ternary metal salt combinations using aluminum potassium sulfate, ferrous sulfate, and stannous chloride mordants in order to develop natural and beautiful shades on wool with different hue and tone. The dyeing was carried by exhaustion method and dyed samples were analyzed using a reflective spectrophotometer in terms of CIELab and CIELch (L*, a*, b*, c*, and h°) and K/S values. Wash and light fastnesses were investigated according to ISO standards. Wool samples pre-mordanted with ferrous sulfate-stannous chloride (neutral medium) displayed the highest color strength value of 11.22 followed by ferrous sulfate-alum and alum-stannous chloride combinations. Statistical analysis of color parameters confirms the synergetic role of individual metal salts in different combinations. The results showed that 36 different shades having good to very good fastness properties were produced by the use of different metallic salt combinations in the natural dyeing of wool using A. nilotica bark extract as dye.