Aqueous extraction of buckwheat hull and its functional application in eco-friendly dyeing for wool fabric

As a cheap and abundant agricultural byproduct, buckwheat hull is expected to be applied in many fields such as textile, biotechnology, and medicine. In this paper, the physicochemical properties of buckwheat hull extraction (BHE) and its dyeing abilities for wool fabric with different eco-friendly mordants and methods were studied. The theoretical process, colorfastness, and UV-protection properties of the dyed wool fabric with BHE were investigated. The results showed that BHE solution had good thermal and reduction stability. The dyeing process of BHE on wool was in accordance with the Langmuir model and had uniform monolayer adsorption. Wool fabrics dyed directly or through a mordanting process demonstrated good washing colorfastness and acceptable crocking- and light colorfastness. The dyed wool fabrics with KAl 2+ and meta-mordanting showed excellent UV-protection as well as exceptional antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli. Therefore, BHE presents a novel alternative for some synthetic dyes that are applied in the textile industry.