Eco-friendly printing of natural fabrics via fenugreek gum with safflower, henna and alkanet natural dyes

This work is aimed to use an eco-friendly water soluble gum (extracted from Fenugreek seeds) to investigate its suitability in printing paste as thickening agent with natural dyes named; Safflower, Henna and Alkanet were used as an alternative solution for toxic, carcinogenic and harmful problems resulted from synthetic dyes. The addition of citric acid or sodium carbonate to the printing paste using different values was examined to achieve the best colour strengths on the fabrics and get the most efficiency of the used natural dyes. Alum, Iron, Copper, and Tannic acid were different mordants used to enhance the strength of colours resulted of natural dyes on fabrics.