FERMENTING KASIM WITH DIVERSE SUGARS – A NOVEL APPROACH TO AN ANCIENT NATURAL DYE

Kasim, an ancient natural black dye, has been an integral part of traditional textile crafts of India like Kalamkari, Bagh, Ajrakh, etc. Despite being an important natural dye since the 16th century, there is a lack of scientific evaluation of Kasim in literature. In the present study, Kasim fermentation was optimized using different sugar sources with iron scrap in the ratio of 1:2. In addition to the traditionally used jaggery, a novel approach of fermenting Kasim with sugarcane juice was studied. The dyeing efficiency of each variation was evaluated by dyeing 100% cotton fabric pre-mordanted using myrobalan nut powder. The pH levels of fermenting liquor were observed at regular intervals and found to vary between 3.5 to 6.5 during fermentation. FT-IR analysis of the dyed samples was conducted for preliminary characterization of the dye. The spectra indicated the presence of functional groups such as, ether, carbonyl, and alcohol. The color strength (K/S) increased as fermentation progressed, with the highest values observed in samples dyed with sugarcane juice liquors fermented for 7 days. The CIE L*a*b* values were very low, indicating a purer hue of black. The samples developed brown-black to charcoal-black hues. The colorfastness properties did not show any significant variation with the varying sugar sources and were observed to be good to excellent. The novel approach of fermenting Kasim using sugarcane juice produced the best dyeing results in much lesser time.