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Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) is an excellent source of polysaccharides with potential for various applications in textile processing. Presently, proso millet is an economically important crop in the United States albeit for low-end uses such as bird seed and livestock feed. The current research is directed at utilizing starch extracted from proso millet for higher value-added applications such as a thickener in textile printing. The paper describes an optimum method of extracting starch from proso millet followed by physiochemical characterization of the extracted starch using methods such as swelling capacity, paste clarity analysis, amylose content, spectrophotometric analysis of starch color, XRD analysis, thermal stability analysis via DSC, and rheological examination. Characterized starch was then incorporated as a thickener in a vat dye print formulation and printed on a 100% cotton fabric. Printed quality was evaluated in terms of color depth, bending length, crocking fastness and washing fastness. Additionally, print quality was benchmarked against samples printed with sodium alginate as the thickener in the print formulation. Results showed starch from proso millet had desirable properties of a good thickener such as excellent paste clarity, adequate viscosity and high solubility and crystallinity. Proso starch printed samples demonstrated comparable color value, flexibility, crocking fastness and washing fastness when compared with sodium alginate printed samples. The results suggest that proso millet starch is an effective and economical thickener in textile printing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]