An innovative, economic and green technique for the generation of colour silk by bombyx mori fed with dye mixed diet

Silk the queen of fibers admired by people all over the world for its marvellous properties. Colour is an attractive epithet of silk that magnifies its popularity and demand. However, the hazardous chemicals required for the dyeing process is a threat to the environment. Therefore, it is interesting to introduce a new generation of coloured silk without losing its intrinsic properties. The intrinsically coloured silk has produced directly from silkworms through feed manipulation with dyes those have incorporated effectively into silk gland. This green process without any chemical pollution offers the development of an insect system that produce coloured silk directly from the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori (B. mori) through the in vivo uptake of vital dyes such as neutral red, eosin, light green and phenol red. Colour appearance observed in the silkworm body, haemolymph, silk gland, cocoon, pupa, moth and egg of certain dye fed groups. The physical and economic traits of the larva and cocoon of all the groups have analyzed and the results imply that, with the skillful utilization of vibrant colour dyes, both a novelty in silk industry and reduction of dye waste pollution could be achieved.