Chemical study of red spinach

The art of natural dye has been long forgotten ever since the discovery of the synthetic dye in the nineteenth century. It used to be an ancient art practiced commonly in India, Egypt and Central Asia as the earth is rich in natural resources. Different colours of plants are used to extract the desired colours of natural dye. There are many parts of the plant that can be beneficial in producing natural dye such as the bark, stem, leaves, roots and flowers. However, since the knowledge on natural dye are not practised, there are no development in extracting and dyeing technique. Therefore, to satisfy the growing demand for dyes, the manufacturer chooses synthetic dyes. The advantages of producing synthetic dye includes simple process of production in large quantity with reasonable price. However, it was found out that, the usage of synthetic dye has been harmful to the environment. Based on the previous study, the contain of synthetic dye which are cytotoxic and carcinogen can cause various diseases to living organisms and the environment. Therefore with respect to the current situation, this research was conducted to achieve the objectives of extracting natural dye from red spinach and to investigate the chemical properties of the natural dye extracted. The extraction of the natural dye will be carried out by using solvent extraction method where ethanol to water is used in the ratio of 30:70, 40:60 and 50:50. The extracted natural dye will be analysed by using UV spectrophotometer and high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). By comparing both of the analysed data, the chemical composition that result in the red colouration of red spinach can be confirmed.