Dried insects

Hernan Cortes, who had arrived in America in 1518, did not fail to recognize the commercial value of cochineal. Indeed, the dried insects became the first product exported from the New World to the Old, and Europeans couldn t get enough of that vibrant, beautiful scarlet color. France s famed Gobelin tapestries were tinted with cochineal. There was such demand for the dye that by the sixteenth century Spain was importing half a million pounds of cochineal annually. That s an impressive amount, especially considering that it takes seventy thousand hand-gathered insects to make a pound of the dye. Cochineal red became so popular that it drove kermes into obscurity, and cochineal is still used today. 

Invertebrates Insects Pinned or mounted dry insects, wet Butterfly wings, beetles (scarabs)... 

The spectrum in Figure 7 is the result of the subtraction of the spectra ultramarine blue and white lead. Similar spectral features are present in Figure 8, a reference spectrum of crude cochineal (from Peruvian Coccus cacti). This reference spectrum was taken from the darker red, almost black, part of the dried insect. An important consideration is that if the region from 1400 to 1800 cm-1 is expanded, a pair of doublets become evident at 1465 and 1472 cm"1 and at 1708 and 1734 cm-1. These same bands appear in the reference spectrum at 1463 and 1472 cm"1 and at 1708 and 1734 cm"1. The fact that the frequencies of these doublets match suggests that the red pigment may very well be cochineal. 

Among animals, this type of defence is practised by millipedes, centipedes and insects only. The larvae of the Australian beetles of Paropsis and Chrysophtarta, feeding on Eucalyptus leaves produce mandelonitrile and prunasin. When freeze-dried insects were treated with P-glucosidase and nitrilase, HCN was released (Figure 10.7). The larvae... 

Vanilla. Vanilla is the dried, cured, fuU-sized, but not fully ripe fmit pods (beans) of Vanillaplanifolia And. and V. tahitensis J. W. Moore (Orchidaceae). The vine is native to the tropical rain forests of southern Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America. Plantings were started in Madagascar, Reunion, Java, Mauritius, and Zanzibar in 1840. The Madagascar-type bean is stUl the most important, but Indonesia produces more than Malagasy. The stmcture of the flower prevents self-pollination and therefore, where insects are not prevalent, hand pollination is necessary. 

The principal OTC pharmaceutical products include cold remedies, vitamins and mineral preparations, antacids, analgesics, topical antibiotics, antiftingals and antiseptics, and laxatives. Others include suntan products, ophthalmic solutions, hemorrhoidal products, sleep aids, and dermatological products for treatment of acne, dandmff, insect parasites, bums, dry skin, warts, and foot care products (11). More recent prescription-to-OTC switches have included hydrocortisone, antihistamine and decongestant products, antiftingal agents, and, as of 1995, several histamine H2-receptor antagonists. 

Raw lac is first treated to remove water-soluble carbohydrates and the dye that gives lac its red color. Also removed are woody materials, insect bodies, and trash. It is further refined by either hot filtration or a solvent process. In the heat process, the dried, refined lac is filtered molten through cloth or wine screens to produce the standard grades of orange shellac. In the solvent process, lac is dissolved and refluxed in alcohol solvents, filtered to remove dirt and impurities, and concentrated by evaporation. The lac can be further decolori2ed in this process to produce very pale grades. Bleached shellac is prepared by treatment with dilute sodium hypochlorite and coalesced into slabs. 

The primary use for methyl bromide is in the extermination of insect and rodent pests. Methyl bromide is used in space and stmctural fumigation except in California. The material is suitable for the fumigation of food commodities such as dried fmits, grain, flour, and nuts, and the faciHties in which these foods are processed or stored, as weU as for tobacco and many kinds of nursery stock. The usual dosage is 2—4 kg/28 m for 12—24 h. In soil fumigation methyl bromide controls weed seeds, nematodes, wireworms, and soil fungi. The usual dosage is 0.5—1 kg/9 m for 24 h at 16°C and above (82). 

Cochineal Extract. Cochineal extract (Cl Natural Red 4, Cl No. 75470 EEC No. E 120) is the concentrated solution obtained after removing the alcohol from an aqueous-alcohoHc extract of cochineal, which is the dried bodies of the female insect Coccus cacti Dactylopius coccus costd) a variety of field louse. The coloring principle of the extract is beHeved to be carminic acid [1260-17-9] (40), an hydroxyanthraquinone linked to a glucose unit, comprising approximately 10% of cochineal and 2—4% of its extract. 

Crude papain, obtained as the dried exudate of the fruit and leaves of Caricapapaya L., Cari-caceae, Is usually found to have been contaminated during collection, drying, or storage by insects, rodent hair and excreta, botanical plant parts, sand, etc. and may thereby become further contaminated by harmful bacteria and enteric organisms. 

It takes more than a million of the insects to make a pound of dye. The insects are harvested when the females are about to lay eggs, at which time they turn a bright red color. First, the shells of the female insects are dried next, the color is dissolved in a solvent and all of the... 

Cenozoic Tertiary 66 Myr Climate Cools. Continents nearing modern positions. Drying trend in middle of period. Radiation of birds, mammals, flowering plants, pollinating insects... 

Cochineal pigments are extracted from dried bodies of female insects with water or with ethanol the result is a red solution that is concentrated in order to obtain the 2 to 5% carminic acid concentration customary for commercial cochineal. For carmine lakes, the minimum content of carminic acid is 50%. An industrial procedure applied in Spain uses ammonium hydroxide as the extracting agent and phosphoric acid as the acidifying agent. For analytical purposes the extraction is carried out with 2 N HCl at 100°C. The chemical synthesis of carminic acid has also been reported and is the subject of European and United States patents. ... 

For the control of locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets, 2 to 4 ounces of aldrin per acre, applied as a spray to host crops, yield highly effective results. The 4-ounce dosage is necessary under adverse control conditions such as prevail where vegetation is dry and most of the insects are in advanced stages of growth (9). 

---