Safflower yellow pigment

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). 

Contains a complex mixture of red and yellow pigments including 20-30% safflower yellow (safflower yellow SY) which is composed of safflomin A (75%), SY-2 (15%), SY-3, and SY-4, all chalcones glycosides of chalcone (e.g., carthamin yellow) and qui-none (e.g., carthamone red), with the latter predominant in the commercial product also colorless flavonoids and flavonoid glycosides (carthamidin, isocarthamidin, neocarthamin) safflower polysaccharide (glucose, xylose. 

Watanabe, T. et al., Separation and determination of yellow and red Safflower pigments in food by capillary electrophoresis, Biosci. Biotech. Biochem., 61, 1179, 1997. Fekrat, H., The application of crocin and saffron ethanol-extractable components in formulation of health care and beauty care products. Proceedings of International Symposium on Saffron Biology and Biotechnology, Fernandez, J.A. and Abdullaev, R, Eds., Albacete, Spain, 2004, p. 650. 

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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