Isolation and Identification of Lawsonia Content from the Leaves of Henna (Lawsonia inermis)

Lawsone is an orange red dye mainly isolated from Lawsonia inermis plant leaves. L. inermis is commonly known as henna plant, Egyptian privet, or mignonette tree. In Pakistan, henna is known as mehndi. Paste from thick henna leaves has been used to dye hairs, fingernails, palms of hands, and eyebrows for more than 5000 years. The characteristic colour of henna is because of the natural dye lawsone present in it. In this study, lawsone was extracted from four samples of henna leaves collected from various parts of Pakistan. Moreover, the impact of the environment on the leaves was examined. Lawsone was extracted using diethyl ether, so that the maximum amount of lawsone could be isolated from the leaves. The maximum and minimum amount of lawsone isolated during this work was 1.01% and 0.745% of dry weight, respectively. Afterwards, IR and HPLC were used to identify the isolated reddish-brown substance known as lawsone which is useful in textile, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical sectors.