Identification of natural dyes in rare Coptic textile using HPLC- DAD and mass spectroscopy in museum of Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Egypt

Rare Coptic dyed textile samples, collected from the studied museum, were identified with A High Performance Liquid Chromatographic method coupled to a Diode-Array-Detector (HPLC-DAD) and Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). In addition, this study attempts to evaluate the efficacy of an improved extraction method using two solvents compared with the conventional hydrolysis method. The results indicated that mixtures of organic dyes were used in these objects in order to produce different colors. Various natural dyes such as indigo and madder, etc. were identified. Dyes identification can be very helpful in dating these archeological textiles depending on the sort of dye and its manufacturing or discovery date. Furthermore, the identification of dyes, used for historical textiles, can help in elucidating their place of origin and time of production. Moreover, dyes identification will be used in developing a plan for conservation and restoration of the valuable textile collection in this museum.