Extraction and Utilization of Banana Plant Resin for Possible Use as Pigment Binder on Cotton Fabric

Extraction and Utilization of Banana Plant Resin for Possible Use as Pigment Binder on Cotton Fabric

CHAPTER ONE

Objectives Of Study

The objectives of this study are to:

select and collect the different species of the study plant which are musaceae (banana) plant.
determine its quantity and quality.
determine the suitable methods of extracting resin from musaceae.
select suitable mordants that will be introduced to help fix the produced ink on cotton fabric.
test the wash, light, and rub fastness property of the pigment binder on cotton fabric.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Introduction

The review of related literature in this study is based on: 1. Review of local raw materials, 2. Natural and synthetic gum-resins, and their uses, 3. some plants used as binders, 4. methods of extraction: manual and laboratory, description of Musaceae plant and its chemical composition, pretreatment of the fabric, experimental procedures: mordanting, mixing the binder with pigment, thickening and varnish, printing processes, fixing techniques, colour fastness test.

Review of natural raw materials

Textile is a tradition that goes back through time and may in fact be one of the earliest collected art form. According to archeologists and anthropologists, the earliest clothing probably consisted of fur, leather, leaves or grass; draped, wrapped, or tied about the body. The desire to protect the entire body from harsh weather as well as from bites of insects led to many exploits, even that of textile raw materials, (Maiwada, 2001).

Humans have been painting on fabrics for thousands of years, basically since people started twisting and weaving fibres together to make the early fabrics. According to anonymous (2010) the techniques that were used to decorate the body began to be applied to the earliest fabrics that were developed. Two basic methods emerged: colouring, (directly applying an image with colour to fabric) and patterning printing with resists in pattern and then colouring the fabric. The paint used was essentially composed of a binder, pigment and solvent, fabrics, (Michael, 1983). Asia has a long history of decorating fabrics printing blocks have been discovered that dated to around 3000 B.C by 327 B.C when Alexander the great invaded India, colourfully printed and painted fabric were commonly found. As the trade routes developed, beautiful Indian patterns were traded throughout Asia, Egypt and Greece. In the second century AD they made their way to Europe and Africa.

Primitive Pigments

According to Michael (1983) paint was made more than 35 000 years ago by prehistoric man as they mixed clays and chalks with animal fats and used these paints to depict their hunts on cave walls. By 2500BC the Egyptians had improved this technology considerably. They had developed a clear blue pigment by grinding azurite, and instead of animal fats they used gums, wax and maybe also albumen (egg white) as binders and solvents for their paints.

Early man used pigments from his natural environment in painting, thus the pigment found in different areas of the world tend to vary. It is thought that pigments were applied by two methods; the first was to mix pigment withs animal fat and apply it as paint with fingers or a reed, the second method was to blow pigment onto the painting surface using a hollow tube, (Anon., 2004).

Adhesive: an adhesive is a material capable of holding together solid materials by means of surface attachment. An adherend is a solid material to which the adhesive adheres and the adhesive bond or adhesive joint is the assembly made by joining adherends together by means of an adhesive bond. It primarily depends on the forces of adhesion, but its magnitude is determined by the physical properties of the adhesive and the adherend, as well as the engineering of the bond. The interphase is the volume of material in which the properties of one substance gradually change into the properties of another. The interphase is useful for describing the properties of an adhesive bond, (Pocius, 1991).

He further gives record of one of the earliest used adhesive bonding is a mural discovered in a sepulcher in ancient Thebes which depicts veneering of furniture by means of a hot-melt adhesive. The oldest forms of adhesives were those of natural origin. Glues that are made from collagen-containing parts of animals or from animal blood are examples of oldest forms of adhesives. Casein or milk, glues have been known since the 9th century and exist to this date in a form not substantially different from that discussed by Theophilus. Some of the more ancient resins used to form adhesives are materials such as Bitumen, Shellac, and Pitch.

CHAPTER THREE

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the materials and methods applied in selecting, collecting and treatment of data, in order to achieve the objectives of this study. The chapter comprises:

Methods, materials, research instruments, identification, collection, preparation of raw materials, method of extraction, pre-treatment of fabric, mixing and printing, fixing, colour fastness tests and classification of raw materials.

Materials

The following materials and equipment were used: ammonium chloride, thickeners (gum arabic, gum tragacanth, sodium alginate), Alum, Potash, Sodium chloride (salt) were used as additives, resins (Binder) from two species of Musaceae, laboratory tools and equipment, machines such as: Spoon, pigment, fabric (cotton), iron, weighing balance, spatula, hot plate, oven, beakers, syringe, stirring rod, metal and glass beakers for collecting samples, hot plates, crockmeter and oven for baking or drying samples were used as tools in this study as recommended by (Jen (2004)) as supported by (Olaofe, 2010), in order to help the researcher to be sure in identification, data collection, and experimental processes.

Research Instruments

The following were the instruments used, they are: Participant observation, observation, unstructured interview, camera, documentations.

METHODS

Identification of Banana Plant Species

To be able to identify the different species of banana plants, research assistants in the field from the Botanical science section of Biological Sciences Department and the Department of Agronomy, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria together with the researcher went to different locations of the study area specifically; Fadama farms and gardens in residential compounds in Samaru, in Sabon Gari and Zaria Local Government Area, for the identification. The research assistants used scientific methods for the identification, by knowing how the leaf shape, stem shape and the height of the plant look like.

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Introduction

This chapter discusses the research findings and the data analysis, the chapter has answered the research questions and has also seen if the objectives of the study have been achieved. This view agrees with Adetoro‘s (1986) assertion that the adoption of data analysis is subject to the intents and purposes of the study. In a related opinion Ndagi (1984) in Nyam (1985) stated that experimental research focuses attention on data analysis with intention of discussing and interpreting the results, approach and techniques. According to Adetoro (1986), the purpose of data analysis is to simplify the data so as to clarify the relationships between and among variables and objects. Some of the ways to analyse are: in groups, use of tables, interpretation of the analysis, drawing inferences and generalization.

The study was based on the use of resins extracted from two species of Musaceae namely; Musa Cavendish dwarf and Musa Paradisiaca as binder. Pigment was used on fabric. However, this research is essentially experimental; therefore the data analysis was substantially based on discussion and interpretation. This is to help know if the resin can bind pigment to the substrate. The results of the methods used in chapter three, are reproduced in this chapter and then data were analysed emparately to facilitate better understanding of their interpretation.

Pretreatments of Fabric (Desizing) Procedures

Cotton was the selected type of fabric used for this work, and rot steeping was the technique adopted for the pre-treatment of the fabric. The following is the procedure;

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Introduction

This chapter has to do with the summary, conclusion and recommendations of this research work. The summary of the study includes the purposes, problems, methodology and procedures of this study, followed by a summary of the findings. Conclusions based on the findings which are related to the research questions and recommendations for future research in line with the findings.

Summary

The insufficiency of raw materials was what led to this study titled ―extraction and utilization of banana plant resin for possible use as pigment binder on cotton fabric‖ and its fastness properties when printed. Two species of musaceae plant namely: Musa Cavendish dwarf and Musa Paradiciaca were collected at fadama farms located in Sabon Gari and gardens of residential compounds in Samaru, also in Sabo Gari Local Government Area, which is the selected area of study.

The following were steps used in achieving the objectives of the study: pretreatment of fabric, identification of species of the research plant, collection, extraction of resins, mixing, printing procedures, colour fastness test and finally interpretation and discussion of results were carried out.

One yard of cotton fabric was weighed and desized. It was soaked in water for a period of 24 hours, and then it was sun dried for a period of 1hour 30mins. After which it was ironed for 4-6 minutes with temperature between 80oC – 100oC. Research assistants from Botanical science section of Biological Sciences Department and the Department

of Agronomy, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, used scientific methods for the identification of plant species. The raw materials were then taken to the laboratory for the extraction, direct extraction also called tapping was the technique employed in this work.

The specimens were used fresh in liquid condition into the paste, different thickeners were introduced namely: sodium alginate, gum tragacanth. Pigments were introduced into the solution in separate beakers, and all were mixed with three different mordants namely: alum, potash and salt. It is also inferred that the amount of resins mixed was 2.5mls, with half pellet of pigment, 2 tea spoon full of thickener, 2/3 tea spoon of mordants well mixed for 3-4mins, and then printed on the fabric. Some fixative processes such as oxidization, steaming and ironing, were done. All samples were printed on cotton fabric and were subjected to standard washing, rubbing or light fastness tests.

I.S.O. 3, was the standard used for the washing fastness test, the results of wash and rubbing fastness tests were interpreted using the grey scale (I.S.O. 150), while the light fastness test was interpreted using the blue standard, and at last all results were reported.

Conclusion

The method in which resin from Musaceae plant can be extracted is by pounding chopped pieces of the pseudostem until it became soft then squeezed into a bowl after which it was sieved and filtered using a nylon mesh to remove impurities. The resin was extracted in a liquid form. It can also be extracted by the tapping process, the tapping process has to do with incision of the plant or for the case of the Musaceae stem the plant stem has to be cut round and allow the resin to be dripping into a container.
Mordanting the prepared ink was the most appropriate way of helping in fixing the ink paste solution onto cotton fabric, the mordants that was used were: ammonium chloride, alum, potash (potassium of carbonate) and salt (sodium chloride). It can be deduced that additives and agencies helped in enhancing the binding of pigment paste when used with resin from Musa cavendish dwarf and Musa paradisiaca species of Musaceae. During the mordanting of the paste process, Alum mordant brought out the best results, followed by potash and then sodium chloride.
The resin extracted was used fresh in a liquid form into the pigment solution and was applied as paint onto cotton fabric, immediately after the period of extraction of resins (binder).
Some of the additives tended in changing the shades of pigment colour and also the resins when mixed gave some darker shade.
From the analysis of the experiments performed, both extracted resin from pseudostem of Musa cavendish dwarf and Musa paradisiaca helped in binding pigment on cotton fabric by mixing it with mordants which helped in fixing the prepared ink paste on cotton fabric. It can be concluded that locally produced binder from both species of Musaceae namely Musa cavendish dwarf and Musa paradisiaca produced acceptable results, especially wash fastness test, followed by the rub fastness test and then light fastness test.

Recommendations

Further research should be made to find out other local plants that can be used as pigment binders such as: Calotropis, sarostemma and Pedilanthus Tithymaloides.
Farmers of these localities should be encouraged by the Ministry of Agriculture to cultivate more Musaceae plants of different species and they should try and preserve the available ones and farmers should locate more banana plant species especially the wild grown species and preserve large quantity of it for the use in industries.
The Ahmadu Bello University authority should assist the textile section of the Department of Industrial Design financially to purchase laboratory equipment for research activities such as: wash fastness machines, driers (oven), rubbing fastness machines (crockmeter), and light fastness machines. This will help in enhancing quick results of the tests.
To reduce foreign dependency, Nigerian research institutes should explore effective ways to develop local raw materials in the textile production. The Federal and State Governments should include textile graduates in the graduates‘ loan scheme, this will create job opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers considering textile being a labour intensive industry.
The Federal Government of Nigeria should release fund to revive the existing textile industries for the purpose of manufacturing and processing of raw material that has to do with the textile industries. They should try and sponsor researches to be handled by technologists and industrial chemists in order to locate more banana plant species especially the wild grown species and preserve large quantity of it for the use in industries.
Since the research was based on resin from musaceae resins in a liquid form, research should be conducted on the appropriate chemicals that can preserve the resin for a long period of time, so that researchers will not have to go for fresh ones. In this study the resin was preserved in a refrigerator and it was still suitable for use.
Alum (KAl(SO4)2.12H2O), potassium carbonate (K2CO3), ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) and sodium chloride (NaCl) were used to enhance and help fix the ink on cotton fabric. Different catalysts should be researched on.

REFERENCES

Adegboyega, O.K. (2010), Chemical composition of Unripe (green) and Ripe Plantain (Musa paradisiaca). Article. Nutrition Centre, Ibadan University, Ibadan, Nigeria. Journal of the science of food and Agriculture Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry .
Adukpe, J.O. (1990), A Comparative Study of Local Cactus Latex and Imported Chemicals for Use in Photographic Silk Screen Printing. Unpublished M.A Thesis, Dept. of Industrial Design, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
Akuezuilo, E.O (1993), Research Methodology and Statistics. Nuel Centi (Nigeria) Publishers in Association with Christopher and Company, Ezi-abba, Abba, Awka Capital Territory, Nigeria. Pp 11
Alau, D. D. (1986), Exploratory Extraction of Dye from Local Plants in Southern Zaria, Some Selected Mordant, Unpublished M.A Thesis, Dept. of Industrial Design, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
Andre, B. (n.d.), A Technical Dictionary of Printmaking. http//www.polymetaal.nl/beguin/alfabet.htm
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