Utilization of Improved Indigenous Tannins of Grain Powder (Acacia Nilotica) in Eco Friendly Tannage
Pages : 14-20Download PDF
New tanning mixture was investigated to improve the performance of indigenous tanning materials. Many experiments were conducted in National Leather Technology Centre, Sudan using a blend of 80% Acacia nilotica pods ‘Garad’ and 20% azadirachta indica ‘Neem’ barks. The spray-dried powder from a mixture of Acacia nilotica pods and azadirachta indica ‘Neem’ was applied for full vegetable tanning to produce shoe upper leathers. The physico-mechanical properties of the improved tanned leather were compared with conventionally tanned leather. The pretannage and full vegetable tannage were preceded using accustomed method in NLTC, Sudan while physio-mechanical analyses of the leather were performed using AOAC (1996). Parameters of the tanned leather were tensile strength (20.0 N/Cm2), tear strength (4.4 N/cm), stitch tear strength (11.8 N/cm), elongation (40.5%), distension and strength of grain (8.9 mm) and shrinkage temperature (>82°C). The results showed that the ‘Garad – Neem’ blend significantly enhanced the quality of tanned leather to almost double the level of the leather tanned by conventional pure Acacia nilotica pods ‘Garad’ power.
Keywords: Leather, Acacia nilotica, azadirachta indica, pretannage, full vegetable tannage, mechanical and physicochemical properties