Dyes and Pigments: Interventions and How Safe and Sustainable Are Colors of Life!!!

ABSTRACT

We are fond of varied colors and they are strongly bonded in our life. In most cases, even a child looks eagerly for colorful toys, bottles and with passage of time desire to have attractive textiles to psychological imprints for colorful life with individual perceptions. Thus, dyes and pigments are integral part of our civilization and documented since prehistoric days. They may be classified as natural and synthetic, application or solubility based with continual efforts to have best combinations. There is growing demand as well as concern over the adverse implication of synthetic colorants on both the consumer, environment, ecosystem and thus need for safe, nontoxic, sustainable coloring alternatives have increased multifold for varied applications in food additives, cosmetics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, packaging, automobiles, defense sectors, etc. They may be amine, nitro, Sulfur based azodyes, or others with established reports on usage at levels above than the permissible regulatory limits. The usage of bacterial and fungal biobased pigments is increasing gradually due to advantages over the synthetic pigments. They are preferred because of simple culturing, pigment extraction procedures, ease of scale-up, and economic viability in less time amidst few limitations. Liposome-dependent innovative pathways may be potential to meet the demand of next generations and developing cost-effective, environment-friendly biobased products with economical feasibility in a time bound manner. For effective decision-making in terms of market share, it is necessary to address market intelligence, consider Covid-19 or similar impacts for assessing the market trends, forecast, and human behavior for comprehensive scientific mapping. The strict implementations of updated holistic, industry-driven standards with compliances to international norms are vital from safety and quality perspective. We must strategically solve environmental issues faced by the current markets as a challenge and safeguard the environment for future generations. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.