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DYEING WITH NATURAL DYES

2. Lac Dye

1. INTRODUCTION

Lac is the most ancient of the animal dyes. It has been used in India and Southeast
Asia since beginning of the recorded history. History of lac goes back to the Vedic period when it
was known as Laksha. The word Lac or lakh was originally associated with very large number of
Lac insects (Indian Lac). The term was further used as lake, i.e., for the insoluble salt of the dye
i.e., pigments. The pigment derived from the insect have no affinity for the fibre. Lake is formed
by the action of the mordant and the dye. Basically it is a mordanted dye on cellulose. India is the
largest lac producing country and it is mostly found in Orissa, Bihar West Bengal & Madhya
Pradesh. It is also available in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnatak and Tamil Nadu. It is a
subsidiary occupation of agriculturists in these areas. The commonest and the most widely
occurring species of the lac insect in India are Laccifura lacca. Another species is Kerria lacca.

Lac is the resinous protective secretion of the tiny lac insect. The insects secrete a
thick resinous fluid which envelopes their bodies and the secretions from individual insects
coalesce and form a hard continuous encrustation over the twigs. The insects secrete a thick
resinous fluid which envelopes their bodies and the secretions from individual insects coalesce
and form a hard continuous encrustation over the twigs. This hard encrustation is available on the
surface of different trees and bushes like Palas ( Butea monosperma) Kusum (Scheicherao
beasa), Ber (Zizyphus mauritania) Bhalia, Galwung, Arhar etc. The twigs are harvested and the
encrustation scraped off, dried and process to yield shellac or dye. The secretions on the twigs of
the plant, on which the lac insect thrives, are scraped off to get what is known as the stick-lac.
Stick lac is harvested from the lac host plants. This contains about 0.5 to 1 % of dye depending
upon the climatic conditions

2. EXTRACTION OF DYES

Lac dye can be directly extracted from stick lac, as it is water-soluble. The stick lac is
crushed and washed with alkaline water twice or thrice. Alternately the powdered lac is boiled in
alkaline water twice or thrice by changing the water1. The solution so obtained is used for dyeing
after filtration. When stick lac is crushed and washed with water, the water soluble lac dye
appears in he effluent discharged by the processing industries2. Lac dye in crystal form can be
manufactured from stick lac in a simple and economical process. In this process, stick lac is
crushed into pieces The crushed stick lac are wetted in water overnight and then churned by
which the dyes dissolve easily in water in a form of a solution. It is then filtered well. However, by
this method, the extraction percentages vary from 50% or more. It is preferable further to treat the
residue with hot water to filter out the dyes still present. So the residual stick lac is again washed
in the same manner and filtered after boiling slightly. The combined filtrates are brought to a
slightly alkaline pH (around 8) by the addition of caustic soda solution and then treated with
calcium chloride (with agitation). The precipitated calcium salt of the dye is filtered and washed to
separate the soluble matter. This calcium salt is converted into soluble sodium salt, which is then
passed through cation exchange resin column, and then the solution obtained is vacuum
concentrated and crystallised to get pure lac dye crystals.

3. STRUCTURE & PROPERTIES OF LAC DYE


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The lac insect leads a sedentary life secreting a kind of lac (resin). The lac has
anthraquinone type structure and is a mixture of at-least five closely related compounds all being
anthraquinone derivatives 2,3. Lac contains a water-soluble red dye, laccaic acid, and an alkali,
spirit soluble yellow dye with minor wax like components. This wax component is erythro-laccin.
Laccaic acid is hydroxy anthra quinone carboxylic acid and it is water soluble and erythro-laccin,
water insoluble.

The lac dye is acidic in nature and is generally present in stick-lac as its sodium and
potassium salts which are completely soluble in cold water. Pure lac dye is only sparingly soluble
in cold water and highly soluble in boiling water. Some of the properties of lac dye is listed in
Table – 12. Pure lac dye is only sparingly soluble in cold water but highly soluble in boiling water.
The dye is also soluble in methyl alcohol, amyl alcohol, acetone, acetic acid and formic acid, but
is insoluble in ether chloroform and benzene. It dissolves out slowly in ethyl alcohol. Its aqueous
solution is orange red while it turns reddish violet in alkaline solution. But the alkaline solution of
lac dye is unstable and decomposes rapidly. Laccaic acid also dissolves in concentrated
sulphuric acid with a beautiful carmine red colour.

4. DYEING WITH LAC DYE

The extracted dye solution obtained from stick lac can be directly used for dyeing to
dye silk and wool. Dyeing is generally carried out for 1 hour at boiling temperature. A little solution
of myrobalan is generally added during dyeing for better fastness 4. In the conventional method of
dying silk or wool, the fabric is mordanted with alum and coated with myrabolan extract. The
mordanted fabric was dyed in solution of lac at boil. The dye yields scarlet and crimson shades
that exhibit good fastness properties especially to light and water. To make the colour deep
maroon, a little iron salt is added to the dye solution after half an hour of dyeing. However,
addition of ferrosulphate can make the colour maroon. Traditionally alum mordant was the only
mordant used for dyeing. However, other metallic mordant like iron, tin & copper can be used to
give different colours like violet, orange and blackish violet respectively. Different colours may be
obtained on silk and wool by using different mordants. Table – 2 shows the colours produced by
treatments with different mordants. The amount of mordant used varies generally from 2 to 5% on
the weight of the material depending upon amount of dye used and % shade required. Lac dye is
acidic in nature and so dyeing can be done in acid bath. Acid bath can be prepared by means of
hydrochloric acid. Wool and silk fibres can be dyed in acidic medium. Lac dissolved in
hydrochloric acid is able to dye wool and silk directly giving an orange red shade, which is fast to
light. Dyeing is generally carried out at boil. Alternately, the alkali bath can be prepared by means
of sodium carbonate. The dyeing time is around 45 minutes. The procedure for dyeing in acid or
alkali bath is same. Mordanting and fixation can be done after dyeing. Lodhra, Kera fruit etc were
also used in the dye bath in different regions. Lodhra is used when the dye solution is prepared
by means of lac and sodium carbonate. The amount of lodhra used is same as that of sodium
carbonate. Kera fruit in combination with its leaves is used to dye muga silk with lac in northeast
region. Sometimes, ferrosulphate is added in the dye bath. Lemon juice, tamarind, cochum or
amchoor was generally required to make the dye bath just acidic. The time for dyeing is
approximately 45 minutes. Since medieval times, other animal based natural dyes are used
simultaneously with lac to make the colour redder.

References

1. K. V. Chanramouli, ‘Natural Dyes Developed for Silk & Wool’, 11th National Convention for Textile
Engineers, Bangalore 31st May & 1st June 1996.
2. S. C. Agrawalla, Ind. Text. J., 107, 10, 26 (1997)
3. Dr. M. L. Gulrajni, ‘Natural dyes and their application to Textiles’, edited by M. L. Gulrajni & Deepti
Gupta, IIT, New Delhi, 1992.
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4. S. K. Patra, Ind. Text. J. 108, 12, 40 (1998)

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