Wool Dyeing with Harmal Seed as a Natural Dye: Investigation of Influencing Factors Using Response Surface Methodology

Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in finding new sources of natural dyes with easy accessibility, high color strength, low cost, and high fastness properties. In this study, harmal seed has been used as a new source of natural dye on wool fibers. Harmal (Peganum Harmala) can be found extensively in several regions of Iran as a self-growing wild plant. Dyeing pH, dyeing Temperature and alum mordant concentration were chosen as the main influencing factors of this study and 25 samples were prepared according to the experimental design. The amounts of color strength of the dyed samples were measured. The results showed that the color strength was increased with increasing the dyebath pH and dyeing temperature. Increasing the concentration of alum decreased the color strength.