Wednesday, November 15, 2006
239-8

Grana Carmine as Alternative in the Textile Industry to Reduce Environmental Contamination.

Gabriela Arroyo-Figueroa, Universidad de Guanajuato, UNESS, "Privada De Arteaga S/n, Centro", Salvatierra, GTO 38900, MEXICO and Graciela M.L. Ruiz-Aguilar, "Universidad de Guanajuato, UNESS", "Privada De Arteaga S/n, Centro", Salvatierra, GTO 38900, MEXICO.

Carminic acid is obtained from the insect grana carmine (cochineal, Dactylopius coccus Costa). This natural colorant is approved by Word Health Institutions because is an innocuous product for the human being. Its excellent stability against to heat and light and also, changes on color by variation on pH, permit it to be attractive to apply for the textile industry. This could create an indirect job for farmers and Mexicans families on the production of the grana carmine and also an improvement on the economy of Mexico. The process will rescue the Mexicans traditions and innovative the dye process, increasing the sale in the market. Synthetic colorants are harmful for the environmental and are difficult to degrade. An option to reduce textile effluent contamination is using natural colorants especially grana carmine. Presences of a natural anthraquinone with radical glycoside on carminic acid formula may let its biological degradation. The dye process does not have methodology because is making in a traditional way. People learn to dye through oral communication from older artisan. We pretend to establish the cotton dye conditions with grana carmine and to follow the standards of quality in the textile industry. The results obtained in this project are extraction of the carminic acid from grana carmine by two methods. We are working on the dying process on cotton with good results. It is necessary to develop more experiments in this stage of the project. A technology to reduce the environmental contamination in effluents from the textile industry by using natural colorants is expected to be established in the near future.

Handout (.pdf format, 641.0 kb)