Murex brandaris

P. Friedlander showed that Tyrian Purple from Murex brandaris was 6,6 -dibromoindigo (previously... 

The magnificent purple pigment referred to in the Bible and known to the Romans as Tyrian purple after the Phoenician port of Tyre (Lebanon), was shown by P. Friedlander in 1909 to be 6,6 -dibromoindigo. This precious dye was extracted in the early days from the small purple snail Murex brandaris, as many as 12000 snails being required to prepare 1.5 g of dye. The element itself was isolated by A.-J. Balard in 1826 from the mother liquors remaining after the crystallization of sodium chloride and sulfate from the waters of the Montpellier salt marshes ... 

Tyrian purple was derived from the "purple snail," the common name for what, in reality, are several species of mollusks of the genus Murex. Each one of the mollusk species yielded a slightly different variety of purple. In Tyre, where the most prized purple dye was produced, Murex brandaris snails were those most abundant and generally used, while in Sidon, not far to the north of Tyre, an amethyst purple variety of the dye was obtained from... 

Centuries before the element bromine was discovered, one of its organic compounds, Tyrian purple, was used as a rich costly dye prepared from a white juice secreted by the Mediterranean mollusk, the straight-spined Murex (M. brandaris Linne) (91,166). Strabo described the Tyrian dye works in his Geography, and the product was mentioned frequently in the Bible (Ezek. 27, 7, 16) (92). In 1909 H. Friedlander of Vienna discovered that this royal dye from Murex brandaris is identical with the 6 6 dibrom indigo which F. Sachs of Berlin and his collaborators had prepared only five years previously from p-bromo-o-nitrobenzalde-hyde (93, 94, 95). 

Freshwater invertebrates, 3 species Aseiius, Lymnaea, Sialis) Gastropod Murex brandaris M. brandaris M. brandaris... 

Heterocyclic colouring matters have been in use since prehistoric times through such natural products as indigo (1) (76MI11200), its 6,6 -dibromo derivative (Tyrian Purple), extracted from the shell of the Mediterranean mollusc, Murex brandaris (74MI11200), and logwood or haematin (2). Haematin is extracted in its leuco or colourless form, haematoxylin,... 

Since prehistoric times man has been dyeing cloth. The wearing of the purple has long been synonymous with royalty, attesting to the cost and rarity of Tyrian purple, a dye derived from the sea snail Murex brandaris. The organic chemical industry originated with William Henry Perkin s discovery of the first synthetic dye, Perkin s Mauve, in 1856. 

The dye industry. This tale refers to one of the most important dyes of the ancient world Tyrian purple. Species of mollusk known as Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus produce a purple color, which supposedly stained Hercules s dog. 

Purple snails besides Murex brandaris (for reddish-purple, each on the right), Trunculariopsis trunculus [31] (for bluish-purple each on the left), Murex erinaceus and Purpura haemostoma may also be used for the preparation of Tyrian purple. By the South Harbour of Saida in Lebanon (Sidon in the ancient world) the beach, 25 metres in breadth and hundreds of metres long, is covered to a depth of several metres with shells of Trunculariopsis trunculus. 

On the other hand, the almost colorless fluid secreted by Murex brandaris, a shellfish of the Mediterranean Sea region, becomes reddish purple on contact with air. The fluid was used by the Phoenicians as a dye from about 1500 BC, and the purple dye is known as Tyrian purple, ancient purple, or shellfish purple, etc. Friedlander, in 1915, isolated about 1.5 g of the pigment from 12,000 specimens of M. brandaris, and clarified its chemical structure as 6,6 -dibromoindigo [5]. Subsequently, the origin of this pigment was identified as sodium tyrindoxyl sulfate [6]. 

Halogen-containing compounds are not only produced by man, but also by Nature [1740-1742], A brominated indole derivative - Tyrian purple dye - was isolated from the mollusc Murex brandaris by the Phoenicians. Since that time, more than 1,000 halogenated natural products of various structural types have been isolated from sources such as bacteria, fungi, algae, higher plants, marine molluscs, insects, and mammals [1743], Whereas fluorinated and iodinated species are rather rare, chloro and bromo derivatives are found more often. The former are predominantly... 

Tyrian purple 6,6 -dibromoindigotin, a red-violet pigment containing two brominated and oxidized indole ring systems. Tp. is present in marine moUusks of the genera Murex and Nucella, and a few related whelks. The isolation and structural elucidation of Tp. from the hypobranchial body of the purple snail Murex brandaris were performed by Friedlander between 1909 and 1911. In antiquity and later in the Middle Ages, Tp. was one of the most expensive dyes. 

The color was, and still is, prepared from several mollusks including Murex brandaris, Murex trunculus and Purpura haemostoma, found on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast as far as the British Isles [31, 32]. The method of extraction and preparation of the colorant was one of the most complex, time-consuming, and labor-intensive activities carried out by the ancients. The reasons are (1) it purportedly takes 10,0(X) shellfish to produce one gram of the pure colorant (see Fig. 4.7) (2) the colorant itself is not actually present in the living animal but its precursor must be excised from the snail s hypobranchial gland (3) the colorant must be produced by a complex chemical process involving enzymatic hydrolysis of the dye precursors and subsequent photochemical oxidation. 

Bromine.— Br, a.n. 35 a.w. 79-92. A constant constituent of marine plants and marine animals, especially anthozoa, in which it may replace chlorine almost completely. A dibromo-indigo, the original Tyrian purple of Imperial Rome, is obtainable from the gastropods, Murex brandaris and M. trunculus. Bromine appears to be a micro-constituent of higher animals, reported values ranging... 

The first work on this well-known dye of ancient times was realized in 1907 by German chemist P. Friedlander, using the moUusk Murex brandaris. 

Tyrian Purple the most expensive dye (main component is dibromo indigo), historically also called royal purple, is obtained from purpura shellfish Murex brandaris) and is substituted by synthetic dye today (12000 mollusks were necessary to obtain 1.4 g of the dye). 

Major component of Tyrian Purple obt. from Murex brandaris and other molluscs. Important dyestuff in ancient times, but which has never been produced commercially. Violet cryst. (1,2-dichlorobenzene). 

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