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Indigo is a natural dye extracted from the leaves of some plants of the Indigofera genus, in particular Indigofera tinctoria. Dye-bearing Indigofera plants were commonly grown and used throughout the world, particularly in Asia, with the production of indigo dyestuff economically important due to the historical rarity of other blue dyestuffs.
True indigo is a shrub 1–2 metres (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) high. It may be an annual, biennial, or perennial, depending on the climate in which it is grown. It has light green pinnate leaves and sheafs of pink or violet flowers. The rotenoids deguelin, dehydrodeguelin, rotenol, rotenone, tephrosin and sumatrol can be found in I. tinctoria. [3]
Common names include Chinese indigo, Japanese indigo and dyer's knotweed. [2] [3] [4] It is native to Eastern Europe and Asia. The leaves are a source of indigo dye. It was already in use in the Western Zhou period (c. 1045 BC – 771 BC), and was the most important blue dye in East Asia until the arrival of Indigofera from the south.
This page was last edited on 22 December 2023, at 06:10 (UTC).; Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply.
Blue colorants around the world were derived from indigo dye-bearing plants, primarily those in the genus Indigofera, which are native to the tropics. The primary commercial indigo species in Asia was true indigo (Indigofera tinctoria). India is believed to be the oldest center of indigo dyeing in the Old World. It was a primary supplier of ...
The tree is harvested from the wild as a medicine and source of a dye and wood. Leaves are extracted as fodder for livestock. The leaves, flowers, fruits and roots are sources of indigo-yielding glucoside, which produces a blue dye or indigo- like dye. About 100–200 kilos of leaves are needed to prepare 1 kilo of dye. [2]
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The indigo dyeing process is centred in the Naju area, where regular flooding of the Yeongsan River provides an ideal wetland environment for the indigo plant. [2] The plants are harvested in July, before they flower, and the leaves are stored in earthenware jars of water for several days to extract the pigment.