Flowers, coloring matter

Safflower, also known as bastard saffron, is a yellow dye that has been used for well over three millennia, having been identified in fabrics from the Egyptian twelfth dynasty. It is derived from the safflower plant, carthamus tinctoria, native to southern Asia and the Middle East. The coloring matter in the plants is a mixture of two components one is yellow, known as safflower yellow B the other, carthamin, is red. Safflower yellow B dissolves in water when fresh safflower flowers are washed with acidulated water. Evaporating the water from the filtered solution leaves the dye as a residue in the form of a powder. Following removal of the yellow component, the red constituent of safflower, carthamin, can be extracted from the flowers by washing them with hot water. In the East, carthamin was widely used in the past, mainly for making cosmetic preparations. 

MANY FLOWERS AND FRUITS CONTAIN COLORING MATTER WHICH YOU CAN EXTRACT WITH HOT WATER AND USE AS AN INDICATOR FOR ACIDS AND BASES. 

Flavones. These compounds are the most widely distributed natural coloring matter formerly used as dyestuffs. Hasone-iype dyes occur in all the higher plants in the leaves, roots, bark, fruits, pollen, and flower petals. The most widespread flavone dye are quercetin and kaempferol. In general, the dyes occur as glycosides, the most common sugar being glucose. 

Mallow. Common mallow high mallow cheese-flower. Leaves of Mafvo sylvestris L and M. romndifolia L., Malvaceae. Habit. Europe, Asia, naturalized in U.S. Con-stir. Pectin, tannin, coloring matter. 

Trihydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphen-yl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one. The coloring matter of the blue flowers of Delphinium consolida. Yellow needles mp = 276-278 Xm 266, 368 nm (e = 18197, 11220, EtOH) insoluble in CeHe, slightly soluble in H2O, CHCI3, soluble in alkali, very soluble in EtOH, EtzO, MezCO. 

Takahashi Y, Miyasaka N, Tasaka S, Mima I, Urano S, Hikichi K, Dcura M, Matsumoto T, Wada M (1982) Constitution of two coloring matters in the flower petals of Carthamus tinctorius L. Tetrahedron Lett 23 5163... 

Look at the seeds, when you throw them into the earth, they are all of the same color, and in coming to their growth and maturity, they form many colors, the flower, the leaves, the branches, the twigs and buds will all be of different colors, and even in a single flower there will be various colors. Similarly, you will find serpents, caterpillars, and butterflies which will be adorned with marvelous colors, nay, by such labor that no painter, no embroiderer could imitate their fine works. Let us now reason still farther you will admit that inasmuch as these things take their food from the earth, so their color comes from the earth and shall I tell you how and who is the cause of it If you give me clear proof of all this, and could draw from the earth, by your alchemical art, the various colors, as these little animals do, I would admit that you can also draw out metallic matters and combine them, to make gold and silver.93... 

We must not, however, take up more time about the mere manufacture, but go a little farther into the matter. I have not yet referred you to luxuries in candles (for there is such a thing as luxury in candles). See how beautifully these are colored you see here mauve, magenta, and all the chemical colors recently introduced, applied to candles. You observe, also, different forms employed. Here is a fluted pillar most beautifully shaped and I have also here some candles sent me by Mr. Pearsall, which are ornamented with designs upon them, so that, as they bum, you have, as it were, a glowing sun above, and bouquet of flowers beneath. All, however, that is fine and beautiful is not useful. These fluted... 

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