Safflower dyes

Domenech A, Domenech-Carbo MT, Sauri MC, Gimeno JV, Bosch F (2005) Identification of curcuma and safflower dyes by voltammetry of microparticles using paraffin-impregnated graphite electrodes. Microchim Acta 152 75-84. 

Term for dyes and lake pigments based on safflower (dye derived from Carthamis tinctorius L.) as opposed to true saffron (qq.v.) derived from Crocus sativus. Sometimes also called carthame or safranum (for example, Watin, 1785). 

Textile dyes were, until the nineteenth century invention of aniline dyes, derived from biological sources plants or animals, eg, insects or, as in the case of the highly prized classical dyestuff Tyrian purple, a shellfish. Some of these natural dyes are so-caUed vat dyes, eg, indigo and Tyrian purple, in which a chemical modification after binding to the fiber results in the intended color. Some others are direct dyes, eg, walnut sheU and safflower, that can be apphed directly to the fiber. The majority, however, are mordant dyes a metal salt precipitated onto the fiber facUitates the binding of the dyestuff Aluminum, iron, and tin salts ate the most common historical mordants. The color of the dyed textile depends on the mordant used for example, cochineal is crimson when mordanted with aluminum, purple with iron, and scarlet with tin (see Dyes AND DYE INTERMEDIATES). 

Saffron is found in the pistils of the plant Crocus sativus. Saffron is often confused with safflower, sometimes known as bastard saffron. The name of the plant. Crocus sativus, comes from the Arabic word faran, meaning yellow. The Romans and the Greeks used saffron not only as a dye but also as a spice. In the early days of Greece, yellow was the official color, and Grecian women were especially fond of clothes dyed with saffron. Because of its scarcity, saffron ranked among the most expensive dyes of the ancient world. 

Safflor, m. safflower, -bliite, /. safflower blossom. -gelb, n. safflower (the dye), -dl, n. safflower oil. -rot, n. safflower red, cartha-min. 

A number of yellow dyes were known in antiquity weld and saffron seem to have been the most widely used, but barberry root, turmeric, Persian berries, and safflower have also been identified in ancient fibers. Weld, probably the oldest European-known yellow dye, is derived from the herbaceous plant Roseda luteola, which is indigenous to central Europe. The dye is distributed throughout the entire plant, although it is concentrated in the upper... 

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. 

The composites can almost compete with the orchids for the title of the largest family of flowering plants. They are found worldwide and in almost all habitats and have economic importance as a source of foods (e.g., lettuce, artichokes), insecticides (pyrclhrum), dyes (safflower), folk medicines, and many ornamentals. 

Most textiles found in historic museums are natural fibers dyed with natural dyestuffs. Therefore, in this experiment two common textiles, cotton and wool, were dyed with safflower, madder root, logwood chips, and indigo. These dyes were chosen to represent a range of colors often found in historic textiles. The cotton and wool textiles were obtained... 

Exceptions are dyeings with safflower (C.I.1 Natural Red 26) (38) made from the leaves of the dyer s thistle (Carthamus tinctorius L.). The red dye carthamin (C.I. 75140) (38) goes into solution when it is boiled in water. When this solution is poured through a paper filter after it has cooled, the paper is stained red, whereas the filtrate is colorless or is stained light yellow by safflower yellow (C.I. Natural Yellow 5), a second dye of the safflower. When the red stained filter is boiled in 1% ammonia, it becomes irreversibly colorless. 

Testing of Red Natural Dyeings. Of the red dyeings made with natural dyes, those produced with safflower (C.I. Natural Red 26) can be identified in the extraction tests with water and with ammonia (colorless), as indicated earlier. Dyeings with sandalwood (C.I. Natural Red 22) can also be identified at this early stage because they turn dark violet when they are boiled in ammonia. When they are washed with water, the original red shade returns. 

Safflower seed oil is a minor oil obtained from the seed of Carthamus tinctorius, grown particularly in India as a source of a valuable red-yellow or orange dye. Annual production of seed varies between 600,000 and 800,000. Normally it is a linoleic-rich oil ( 75% linoleic acid) with LLL (47%), LLO (19%), and LLS (18%) as the major triacylglycerols. An oleic-rich variety ( 74% oleic acid) has been developed and designated saffola (52). 

Each branch terminates in an inflorescence which is a dense capitulum of florets (individual tubular corollas), commonly called a flower. Each floret flower protrudes from a conical head surrounded by layers of bracts. The leaves, which develop along the stalk and branches, and the outer layers of bracts usually are spiny, although the types of safflower grown for the production of dye or food coloring are spineless, or nearly so. The seeds of the safflower plant develop within the head in a concentric pattern and are oblate with a flattened top, usually white, and about the size of a barley kernel (Figure 1) (20). 

Until the twentieth century, safflower tended to be a local crop. No effort was expended to find species that had better oil content, since most of the interest centered around the crop as a medicinal or dye stuff source. 

Another ancient use for safflower is to make dyes. The principal dye, carthamin, is a bright red colorant that is extracted from red-flowered plants after the yellow dye has been leached with water. Carthamin (C43H42O22) imparts a scarlet red color to silk and cotton (173-176). Fine examples of its durability from ancient times can be found in museums in Egypt, China, and Japan (3). Safflower yellow pigment (C16H20O11) must be removed to allow the red dye to be extracted in earlier times the yellow was discarded. A factory has been established in Xinjiang, China, to manufacture large quantities of both types of dye (173). 

To prepare carthamin, safflower is washed with water to remove the yellow dyestuff, and is then extracted with dilute soda solution, and filtered. Cotton yarn is immersed in the alkaline solution, and the liquid acidulated with citric acid. The cotton takes up the carthamin, which is removed with soda solution, and precipitated with citric acid. Obtained in this manner carthamin forms a lustrous green powder, sparingly soluble iu water and ether, readily in alcohol. It dissolves in alkalies with yellowish-green colour. On fusion with potash it gives oxalic acid and para-oxy-benzoic acid. Carthamin dyes animal fibres and unmordanted cotton from a slightly acid bath. It produces a beautiful pink colour on silk. 

Carthamin enters commerce in a nearly pure state as safflower extract. For dyeing, the extract is dissolved in soda and the dyebath acidified with citric or other acid. In place of this extract the soda solution from safflower, which has been extracted with water, may be directly employed. 

The yellow colouring-matter of safflower, which according to Malin has the composition C24H30O15 [63], is of no importance in dyeing. 

Domenech-Carbo et al. also showed the voltammetry of immobilized microparticles to be valuable in the unambiguous identification of dyes such as Curcuma and Safflower in microsamples of works of art and archaeological artifacts (see also Section 6.4.1) [140]. Here, the use of square-wave voltammetry in aqueous acetate or phosphate buffers led to the appearance of well-defined oxidation peaks ofthe dyes in the potential region of +0.65 to +0.25 V (versus Ag AgCl). 

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is a highly branched, herbaceous, thistle-like annual, usually with many long, sharp spines on the leaves. Safflower is grown particularly in India. Traditionally, the crop was grown for its seeds, used for coloring and flavoring foods, and making red (carthamin) and yellow dyes. ... 

The plant (false saffron, dyers saffron) has been grown since antiquity as an oil seed crop and for its flowers from which the dye (carthamin and safflower yellow) is produced. The plant is a spiny erect herb resembling the thistle (30-100 cm high). There are two distinct varieties, one very spiny, the other moderate or spineless. The seeds resemble sunflower seed but are approximately half the size oil content is 36-43% when dehulled. The hull can form a large proportion of the seed (35-65%). The higher-oil-containing... 

Safflower is the common name for a plant producing a red to yellow dye obtained from the flower petals of the plant Carthamus tinctorius L. (Compositae). The name carthamus is the latinised form of the Arabic word quartum or gurtum, which refers to the... 

Considerable confusion exists in the pigment literature over saffron and safflower (. v.) the latter was derived from Carthamus tinctorius L. and produced a red to yellow dye used to prepare lake colours. Antimonial saffron was a term for antimony(V) sulfide (q.v.). 

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