Abstract: In order to understand deeply the adsorption of chtechins on various kinds of fabric and compare their mordanting effects, the adsorption percentage of six types of catechins on silk, cotton and nylon fabric were measured respectively by using the high-performance liquid chromatography under two different initial concentration of tea polyphenol, and the mordanting was carried on with ferrous sulfate, copper sulfate and potassium aluminum sulfate as mordants. The results indicated that there was a greater difference in adsorption capacity of tea polyphenols onto Silk，cotton，nylon fabric. Nylon has the maximum adsorption capacity，followed by silk and cotton fabrics for the minimum. The ester catechins showed higher adsorption on nylon and silk，while the cotton fabric adsorb preferentially non-ester catechins. For each of the three fibers, the adsorption capacity of EGCG was the maximum among the six types of catechins. The effect of three mordants was quite different with each other. Under the same processing conditions, the ferrous salt showed a dark color, copper salt gave a light color，and alum was the most pale. Silk had a similar hue with cotton for every mordant，but difference with nylon. In comparison, the color of nylon was lighter than ether that of silk or cotton fabric.

Key words: catechins, silk, cotton, polyamide, adsorption, mordanting