Tea polyphenols have been reported to have many health benefits and functionalities, such as antibacterial activity, antioxygenation,anti-carcinogenicity and UV protection performance[9e11]. These properties can bring fabric added value when tea extract is used as dye. Although some papers have reported the tea pigments employed as textile dyes, most of the dyeing procedures need mordants to improve color fastness and change the apparent color [6]. These metallic salts of aluminum, iron, zinc, copper and
others are not environmentally friendly. To my knowledge, the functionalities of fabrics dyed with tea and the effect of pH value during dyeing process have rarely been reported.
For the first time, this work studied the influence of dye bath pH on apparent color, color fastness, UV protection and antibacterial