A Study of Natural Color from Mangrove Plants at Tambol Boh, Ampur Klung, Chantaburi Province by Community Participation Process

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to study the biological resources of mangrove plants that could be used in natural dye from Boh sub-district, Klung district, Chantaburi province in order to further develop the wisdom of natural dye from local plants and improve the shades of natural colors by using dyeing auxiliaries. Variety of mangrove plant species and the population number of local plants that could be used in fabric dye were explored using the focus group with community enterprises and the villagers including field survey by the researchers. Then 14 local mangrove plants were selected, mainly focused on using their leaves or fruits, such as Ipomoea pes-caprae, Rhizophora mangle, Pluchea indica, Makuekan (local plant in Chantaburi), Acanthus ebracteatus, Canavalia rosea, Indian mangrove, Xylocarpus granatum, Nypa fruiticans, Bruguiera sexangula, Flagellaria indica, Avicennia alba, Lythraceae and Sonneratia ovate. In a natural textile dyeing process, the leaves or fruits of selected plants were simmered in water in a ratio of 1:2 with medium heat for one hour to extract dye from the leaves or fruits. Then filtered out only colored water and added the dyeing auxiliaries (salt or alum) in a ratio of 30:1 (30 grams of salt or alum to 1 kilogram of water). After that, put the cotton fabric into the colored water and boiled it for 45 minutes. In this phase, the dye color could be adjusted by applying the dying auxiliaries such as rust dying, alum dying, lye water, limewater and mangrove clay dying and crushing it until the color shade was changed from original color of mangrove plants to brown color, which contained various shades of brown. This was because of the reaction between dyeing auxiliaries and cotton that changed the color into darker or lighter hue or change to other colors in the original color scheme, for example auburn, drab and green brown.