Indigofera tinctoria

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Indigofera tinctoria
Indigofera tinctoria1.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Indigofera
Species:
I. tinctoria
Binomial name
Indigofera tinctoria
L.
Synonyms [1]
  • Anila tinctoria var. normalis Kuntze
  • Indigofera anil var. orthocarpa DC.
  • Indigofera bergii Vatke
  • Indigofera cinerascens DC.
  • Indigofera houer Forssk.
  • Indigofera indica Lam.
  • Indigofera oligophylla Baker
  • Indigofera orthocarpa (DC.) O.Berg & C.F.Schmidt
  • Indigofera sumatrana Gaertn.
  • Indigofera tinctoria Blanco
  • Indigofera tulearensis Drake

Indigofera tinctoria [2] , also called true indigo, is a species of plant from the bean family that was one of the original sources of indigo dye.

Contents

Description

True indigo is a shrub 1–2 metres (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) high. It may be an annual, biennial, or perennial, depending on the climate in which it is grown. It has light green pinnate leaves and sheafs of pink or violet flowers.

The rotenoids deguelin, dehydrodeguelin, rotenol, rotenone, tephrosin and sumatrol can be found in I. tinctoria. [3]

Distribution and habitat

The native range of this species is tropical West Africa, Tanzania to South Africa and the Indian subcontinent to Mainland Southeast Asia. [4]

Agricultural use

The plant is a legume, so it is rotated into fields to improve the soil in the same way that other legume crops such as alfalfa and beans are. The plant is also widely grown as a soil-improving groundcover.

Dye

Dye is obtained from the processing of the plant's leaves. They are soaked in water and fermented in order to convert the glycoside indican naturally present in the plant to the blue dye indigotin. The precipitate from the fermented leaf solution is mixed with a strong base such as lye.

Today most dye is synthetic, but natural dye from I. tinctoria is still available, marketed as natural colouring where it is known as tarum in Indonesia and nila in Malaysia. In Iran and areas of the former Soviet Union it is known as basma.

History

Marco Polo (13th century) was the first European to report on the preparation of indigo in India. Indigo was quite often used in European easel painting, beginning in the Middle Ages. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color. Indigo is a natural dye extracted from the leaves of some plants of the Indigofera genus, in particular Indigofera tinctoria. Dye-bearing Indigofera plants were commonly grown and used throughout the world, particularly in Asia, with the production of indigo dyestuff economically important due to the historical rarity of other blue dyestuffs.

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<i>Isatis tinctoria</i> Species of flowering plant

Isatis tinctoria, also called woad, dyer's woad, dyer's-weed, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from the ancient Greek word for the plant, ἰσάτις. It is occasionally known as Asp of Jerusalem. Woad is also the name of a blue dye produced from the leaves of the plant. Woad is native to the steppe and desert zones of the Caucasus, Central Asia to Eastern Siberia and Western Asia but is now also found in South-Eastern and Central Europe and western North America.

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<i>Baptisia</i> Genus of legumes

Baptisia, commonly referred to as wild indigo or false indigo, represents a diverse genus within the legume family, Fabaceae. These flowering herbaceous perennials exhibit an array of characteristics, including pea-like flowers, blooming in the spring that eventually mature into pods, occasionally displaying an inflated form. Renowned for their enduring presence and a spectrum of colours ranging from yellow, blue and white, Baptisia's captivate gardeners with their colourful stems, unique foliage, and exquisite flowers.

<i>Persicaria tinctoria</i> Species of plant

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<i>Indigofera australis</i> Species of plant

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I. tinctoria may refer to:

<i>Wrightia tinctoria</i> Species of flowering plant

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural dye</span> Dye extracted from plant or animal sources

Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources—roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wood—and other biological sources such as fungi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of dyeing terms</span>

Dyeing is the craft of imparting colors to textiles in loose fiber, yarn, cloth or garment form by treatment with a dye. Archaeologists have found evidence of textile dyeing with natural dyes dating back to the Neolithic period. In China, dyeing with plants, barks and insects has been traced back more than 5,000 years. Natural insect dyes such as Tyrian purple and kermes and plant-based dyes such as woad, indigo and madder were important elements of the economies of Asia and Europe until the discovery of man-made synthetic dyes in the mid-19th century. Synthetic dyes quickly superseded natural dyes for the large-scale commercial textile production enabled by the Industrial Revolution, but natural dyes remained in use by traditional cultures around the world.

<i>Indigofera heterantha</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae

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<i>Tephrosia apollinea</i> Species of plant

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genisteae</span> Tribe of legumes

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Indigofera galegoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to India, South East Asia, Malesia, and southern China. It is a shrub usually 2 m (6 ft) high and indigo dye may be extracted from it by the same harvesting and processing methods as Indigofera tinctoria. It grows in open places and valleys.

References

  1. "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species".
  2. "Indigofera tinctoria (true indigo)". Invasive Species Compendium.
  3. Kamal R.; Mangla M. (1993). "In vivo and in vitro investigations on rotenoids from Indigofera tinctoria and their bioefficacy against the larvae of Anopheles stephensi and adults of Calmlosobruchus chinensis". Journal of Biosciences. 18 (1): 93–101.
  4. "Indigofera tinctoria L." Plants of the World online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  5. Pigments through the ages

Further reading