With the increasing awareness of synthetic dyes' health and environmental hazards, the coloring agents are manufactured using natural products due to their biodegradability, and high environmental compatibility is widespread nowadays. This study dyed cotton fabrics with the natural color extracted from Malabar spinach (Basellaalba) leaves. The colorant was extracted from the leaves using an aqueous extraction technique, and the cotton fabric was dyed in two processes by only the pure coloring extraction and added NaCl as a fixation agent to increase the fixation rate of natural dyes. Finally, dyed fabrics have been subjected to different textile laboratory tests, e.g., color absorbance %, tensile strength, tear strength, water fastness, wash fastness, perspiration fastness, and rubbing fastness (dry and wet). Considering the results, dyeing with purely natural dyes without any fixation agent could be an effective process for cotton dyeing.

Keywords : natural dye; cotton; cotton fabric dye; ecofriendly dyeing; malabar spinach; colorfastness.