Abstract: Natural dyes can be extracted from fruits, flowers, leaves, and roots. Exploring
new sources of natural dyes, especially from underutilized plants, emerges as a promising
strategy. The main advantages of exploiting unconventional plants include local availability,
specialty food production, cultural significance, sustainable production, technological
feasibility, and new fundamental insights. Finding and exploiting such underutilized plants
is significant as unfavorable climatic and human conditions put natural vegetation at risk
worldwide. Thus, this study aims to review plants with potential applications as natural
dyes and pigments, highlighting their potential applications, benefits, and prospects.
An integrative review was conducted by searching Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and
SpringerLink for all studies published up to December 2024. For this review, a total of
133 references that presented the information and data of interest to the authors were
selected. This review highlighted their potential applications in food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical,
and textile industries. Despite the growing interest in natural dyes, challenges related
to their stability, seasonality, and extraction efficiency continue to limit their commercial
use. However, advancements in extraction technologies have improved the applicability of
these compounds. Additionally, utilizing underexplored plant sources presents a strategic
opportunity to diversify dye production, reduce reliance on traditional sources, and
promote more sustainable practices
