Abstract

The alkaline fractions of banana peel (Musa, cv. Cavendish) of fruits have been used as a natural dye for cotton fabrics. In the current study, banana peel was evaluated as a multi-functional antibacterial and UV protective agent on the cotton substrate. The extracted solution using 0.1% NaOH was analyzed by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) analysis technique. The extracted dye was applied to the premordated bleached and mercerized Egyptian cotton fabrics made from Giza 89 and Giza 80 cotton varieties. Ferric sulphate was used as mordent. Antibacterial activity was analyzed qualitatively in terms of zone of inhibition and quantitatively in terms of percentage reduction in bacteria. Dyeing performance in terms of color parameters K/S, L*, a*, b* and ΔE were studied. Effectiveness of banana peels against ultraviolet radiation was evaluated in terms of ultraviolet protection factor value (UPF). The data obtained showed that the mercerized fabrics have excellent antibacterial activity, high dye uptake with high UV protection properties among the control and the unmercerized cotton fabrics. The data obtained revealed that Giza 89 had the higher antibacterial activity, dye uptake with high UV protection properties than Giza 80. These results are very important for industrial application with the production of a natural dye, antibacterial, and UV protected as an inexpensive source from waste banana peel as a by-product. The optimum treatment and dyeing conditions were applied on 620 g fabric (about 5 m) and matched results were obtained to the research samples.

Key words: Egyptian cotton, banana peel, antibacterial activity, ultraviolet protection factor (UPF), color parameters.