Indian Scientist from National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) Pune and CSRTI, Mysore have found a 'greener' way to yield colourful silk from its origin by feeding silkworms with colour-dyed mulberry leaves resulting in coloured cocoons.
It was eight years ago in 2005, when Dr. Kanika Trivedy and her colleagues at CSRTI, Mysore, successfully demonstrated this modified feed technology. Later the findings were published in the American Chemical Society journal on December 5.
For the experiment, scientists used azo dyes, which is used extensively in the textile industry. The lab experiment proved to be non toxic and yielded premium silk.
The experiment resulted in pink coloured cocoons and silk threads but other colours can also be produced. And for those who are worried about the silk worms, do not worry the diet to not harm the worms and no adverse effects on the silkworm growth have been reported.
The colour intensity can be controlled by controlling the colour intensity in the feed. No commercial product has been launched using this natural coloured silk yet but we can see these silk products in near future. Initially the price of such products will be a little higher than the traditional silk because the process is costlier but high demand will bring the prices back to normal.
The process is greener i.e, eco-friendly. Textile fabric dyeing industry is one of the most polluting, the process requires huge quantities of water for bleaching, washing and rinsing, and it results in stream of harmful wastewater that needs to be treated effectively before releasing it in environment. Therefore production of naturally coloured silk at large scale will help in reducing adverse environmental effects to a great extent.
[source: Times of India, pune, 13.12.13]
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Hello, I am Piyush Ranjan, a computer engineering student from India. I love coding and talking on technology. Most of the time I am glued to my laptop watching movies, listening songs, blogging or coding.
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