Onion Peel Natural Dyes

The onion Allium Cepa L. also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The dry onion skin produces natural hue which are used for dyeing textiles. Pretreatment of the fabric by metal mordant can give good fastness properties for cotton, wool and silk dyed fabrics. These are used as natural vegetable dye. The skin is inedible and it contains dyestuff called pelargonidin.

For effective and good dyeing, we use extracts of allium cepa skin. These skins are found in different colours depending on the variety of onions like red onion, yellow onion etc. These skins are easily available at our home as a waste from the kitchen. The skins are first separated according to their colour and then grinded into powder form. This powder form dye is mixed with different mordents because it gives good fastness and dark shades of colour on cotton, silk and wool fabrics. The dye has very good potential of uptake, adherence   to the fabric and has good wash and light fastness.