Celebrate Holi festival with homemade organic colours

Tribune News Service

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, March 24

Residents are all set to use colours on this Holi. Harmful effects of chemical colours are also well known. It’s easy to make organic colours at home using every day kitchen ingredients. As most ingredients are edible, no harm is done if a Holi colour accidently enters mouth.

A wide range of colours can be prepared at home using arrowroot powder, henna powder, ratanjot powder, turmeric powder and annatto seeds. What’s more interesting is that even different shades of various colours can be made using different proportions of these ingredients.

Some basic colour combinations

Arrowroot + henna = Different shades of green

Arrowroot + ratanjot = Different shades of purple

Arrowroot + annatto = Different shades of orange

Unlike chemical colours, the biggest and foremost advantage of these colours is that they do not harm skin in anyway. And even if a colour somehow enters a child’s mouth while playing Holi, there is no harm as ingredients used for its preparation are used in one or other common recipes.

To add fragrance to colours, flowers of marigold, amaltas, tesu (Jungle flame), rind of pomegranate, rhizome of turmeric for yellow shade, slice of beetroot for deep pink or magenta, madder and golden drop roots for deep red, henna leaves for green, annatto seeds for orange and jacaranda flowers for blue can be used. Even rose and dahlia can be mixed to give fragrance to colours.

To make a dry powder, these flowers can be mixed in base ingredients as besan (Gram flour), arrowroot and rice powder. Two or more of these ingredients can be mixed to prepare a colour. The choice and variety of colours would depend on one’s creativity and imagination. For wet solution these can be mixed in water and soaked overnight to get a deep colour.

Preparation of organic colours from kitchen ingredients was studied and compiled by the Department of Clothing and Textiles and Department of Home Science of Punjab Agricultural University.

An Assistant Professor (Paediatrician), Government Medical College, said, “Chemical colours are particularly harmful for a child’s skin as it is very sensitive. It is better if chemical-based colours are avoided and alternative ways to celebrate the festival of colours is adopted.”

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