Abstract

Diet supplementation with dye has been regarded as one of the eco-friendly approaches to produce naturally colored cocoons in the sericulture industry; however, its impact on silkworm growth and cocoon yield remains underexplored. This study evaluated the effects of three types of dye agents, rhodamine, nile blue A, and neutral red, on silkworm growth performance, cocoon yield, quality, and silk color retention. The experiment was arranged in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 3 replicates, rearing 200 fourth instar per replication. The monitoring parameters included 5th duration, mature larvae weight, silk gland weight, pupation rate, single cocoon weight, shell weight, cocoon yield/200 larvae, and quality of silk. The results showed that color of larvae and silk gland colors were similar to dye color; while cocoon and silk color was lighter than dye colors. Silkworms fed mulberry leaves supplemented with dyes showed a 4%–13% reduction in single cocoon weight and a 17.4%–26% decrease in shell weight across both crops compared with the control treatment. Cocoon yield declined by 19.3%–29.4% in two crops. Among the dyes tested, neutral red exhibited the highest cocoon yield, while rhodamine exhibited the longest single filament length among all dyes. These findings provide a valuable foundation for developing naturally colored silk via dietary dye supplementation.

Key words: Keywords: Bombyx mori, cocoon, dye, evaluation, mulberry leaf.