Extraction of the natural indigo carmine pigment from the Isatis plant, characterization and dyeing of wool

Natural indigo is hardly used anymore, replaced by synthetic indigo. Considered to be more powerful and more intense. The aim of this study is to optimize the method of extracting indigo carmine from the Isatis plant located in the Timhdit region of Morocco, during the fermentation period of the extracted liquid (pH = 10) and by adding 10% sugar it was possible to increase the yield by 0.5% indigo carmine blue powder to 0.9%. The main effect of applying centrifugation at 7000 rpm instead of conventional filtration is the reduction of the time from 30 min to 5 min as well as the reduction of the loss of traces of indigo in the filter papers by easily recovering the blue powder in the form of sediment in the centrifuge tubes. The extracted pigment is characterized by the infrared which confirmed the structure of the indigo carmine obtained, by visible UV spectroscopy, the maximum absorption of which is approximately 598 nm. This blue pigment was applied to the wool fibres by optimizing the dyeing procedure (T = 50 ° C and pH=10) with a 1/100 bath ratio and a 35 min soaking time. Dyed wool sample has reached a rigid fixation confirmed by the test for fastness washing 105-C06 and to friction 105 -X12.