Sustainable Processing of Naturally Dyed Textiles Through Green Discharge Printing Techniques Using Taro Corms as a Bio-Oxidizing Agent

The influence of the textile industry on the environment, as well as the usage of raw materials and natural resources, is becoming a major problem. It is no longer sufficient to have a product that is simply safe for humans; the product must also be ecologically safe throughout its entire life cycle. As a result, there has been a shift toward employing enzymes in the textile sector to promote eco-friendly production. The goal of this research is to create an environmentally friendly discharge printing on cotton and wool textiles, dyed with various natural plant extracts (Ficus benjamina, Psidium guajava leaves, Solanum melongena peel, and Brassica oleracea var. capitata rubra ) under varied circumstances by using polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) enzymes extracted from taro corms (Colocasia antiquorum) instead of harmful reducing or oxidizing agents. The enzyme extraction temperature was 25°C, and the solute-liquid ratio (1:4 (w/v)) at pH 5.0 after a treatment time of 5 min. The oxidative enzymes were analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) Analysis, which verified the presence of a Retinol component with a molecular weight of 286.45 g/mol and a retention time of 14.7 min, which is regarded as proof of the existence of oxidative enzymes. The activity of oxidative enzymes isolated from taro corms increases over time, with PPO having the highest activity at 180 seconds at a wavelength of 420 nm. POD achieves its peak activity at 180 seconds, and the wavelength 436 was observed. These allow them to be employed as a discharge agent. The effects of enzyme concentration, pH of the printing paste, treatment time, temperature of enzymatic treatment, and also the effect of mixing this enzyme extract with some environmentally friendly oxidizing and reducing agents were studied to determine the discharge efficiency. The results indicate that the discharge rates reached about 40–57% using the enzyme extracted from taro corms at pH 3 for wool samples and pH 5 for cotton one. Mixing with other reducing or oxidizing agents in different concentrations led to a higher discharge rate, which reached 60–66%, and different color half-tones were obtained depending on the difference in mixing ratio, concentration, pH, and other factors affecting color removal. It was also observed that the tensile strength of wool printed samples was constant in the pesidium guava-dyed sample, while the tensile strength in the remaining samples increased by 1–4%, except for the sample dyed with ficus leaves, which decreased. While the tensile strength for cotton samples increased by 4% in the ficus dyed sample and decreased by 13% in the pesidium guava-dyed sample, which is considered an acceptable range. It has been reached that taro corms enzyme extract led to obtaining color halftones on the printed materials as a result of the partial discharge that occurred due to the biological oxidation of the enzyme extract, which is considered a vital alternative to the toxic and environmentally harmful reducing and oxidizing agents.