Sustainable Living By Understanding Natural Dyes Used For Textile Dyeing And Their Therapeutic Effects

Abstract

Civilizations throughout the world have used various locally available natural sources like fruits, flowers, leaves, bark, wood, roots insects, and minerals for dyestuff to give colour to their textiles. Till 1856 all dyes were solely derived from natural sources but post 1856, the scenario changed completely. People were introduced to the world of synthetic dyes. These new dyes replaced the natural dyes to such a massive extent that by the mid-19th century in almost all parts of the world, most natural dyes became a lost technology. India was also one of the victims of this change. We lost track of several dye-preparing and developing methods and dye sources. Many of them became fast vanishing knowledge. Though synthetic dyes had many immediate benefits in terms of ease of production and application as well as performance and cost efficiency, they came with a huge cost to pay. This cost was paid by the environment, along with the physical and mental well-being and safety of living beings, especially humans, and the issue of sustainability at large.  Thus, sustainable living became the new world order for saving the planet and saving lives on the earth in this century. This paper is an attempt to explore the possibilities of sustainable living by understanding different aspects related to natural and synthetic dyes used for textile dyeing, their pros and cons as well as differences, and therapeutic effects of natural dyes that can lead to overall wellbeing and sustainable living. Hence, it can be concluded that natural dyes are the colourants of future directed toward sustainable lifestyles. They have multiple therapeutic functions that can successfully ensure human health, overall safety concerns, and well-being. Several people from a variety of fields and institutions at local, state, country, and global levels are making sincere efforts, but most of these efforts are are very small scale or restricted to laboratories. Collaborative and concerted large-scale efforts made in the right direction are the need of the hour.