Rubia

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Rubia
Rubia tinctorum 002.JPG
Rubia tinctorum
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Subfamily: Rubioideae
Tribe: Rubieae
Genus: Rubia
L.
Type species
Rubia tinctorum
L.

Rubia is the type genus of the Rubiaceae family of flowering plants, which also contains coffee. It contains around 80 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and subshrubs native to the Old World. [1] The genus and its best-known species are commonly known as madder, e.g. Rubia tinctorum (common madder), Rubia peregrina (wild madder), and Rubia cordifolia (Indian madder). [2]

Contents

Uses

Skeins of yarn colored with dye from madder root, Rubia tinctorum. Naturally dyed skeins.jpg
Skeins of yarn colored with dye from madder root, Rubia tinctorum.

Rubia was an economically important source of a red pigment in many regions of Asia, Europe and Africa. [3] The genus name Rubia derives from the Latin ruber meaning "red".

The plant's roots contain an anthracene compound called alizarin that gives its red colour to a textile dye known as Rose madder. It was also used as a colourant, especially for paint, that is referred to as Madder lake. The synthesis of alizarin greatly reduced demand for the natural compound. [4]

In Georgia, Rubia is used for dying Easter eggs in red.

History

Several species, such as Rubia tinctorum in Europe, Rubia cordifolia in India, and Rubia argyi in East Asia, were extensively cultivated from antiquity until the mid nineteenth century for red dye, commonly called madder. Cloth dyed with it has been found on Egyptian mummies. It was the ereuthedanon (ἐρευθέδανον) used for dyeing the cloaks of the Libyan women in the days of Herodotus. [5] It is the erythrodanon (ἐρυθρόδανον) of Pedanius Dioscorides, who wrote of its cultivation in Caria, [6] and of Hippocrates, [7] and the Rubia of Pliny. [8] R. tinctorum was extensively cultivated in south Europe, France, where it is called garance, and the Netherlands, and to a small extent in the United States. Large quantities were imported into England from Smyrna, Trieste, Livorno, etc. The cultivation, however, decreased after alizarin was made artificially. [9]

Madder was employed medicinally in ancient civilizations and in the Middle Ages. John Gerard, in 1597, wrote of it as having been cultivated in many gardens in his day, and describes its many supposed virtues, [10] but any pharmacological or therapeutic action which madder may possess is unrecognizable. Its most remarkable physiological effect was found to be that of colouring red the bones of animals fed upon it, as also the claws and beaks of birds. This appears to be due to the chemical affinity of calcium phosphate for the colouring matter. [11] This property was used to enable physiologists to ascertain the manner in which bones develop, and the functions of the various types of cell found in growing bone. [9]

Species

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rubiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants including coffee, madder and bedstraw

The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules and sympetalous actinomorphic flowers. The family contains about 13,500 species in about 620 genera, which makes it the fourth-largest angiosperm family. Rubiaceae has a cosmopolitan distribution; however, the largest species diversity is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics. Economically important genera include Coffea, the source of coffee, Cinchona, the source of the antimalarial alkaloid quinine, ornamental cultivars, and historically some dye plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alizarin</span> Chemical compound and histologic stain

Alizarin is an organic compound with formula C
14H
8O
4 that has been used throughout history as a prominent red dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Historically it was derived from the roots of plants of the madder genus. In 1869, it became the first natural dye to be produced synthetically.

<i>Ajuga</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Cotoneaster</i> Genus of flowering plants

Cotoneaster is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to the Palaearctic region, with a strong concentration of diversity in the genus in the mountains of southwestern China and the Himalayas. They are related to hawthorns (Crataegus), firethorns (Pyracantha), photinias (Photinia), and rowans (Sorbus).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1,2,4-Trihydroxyanthraquinone</span> Chemical compound

1,2,4-Trihydroxyanthraquinone, commonly called purpurin, is an anthraquinone. It is a naturally occurring red/yellow dye. It is formally derived from 9,10-anthraquinone by replacement of three hydrogen atoms by hydroxyl (OH) groups.

<i>Asperula</i> Genus of flowering plants in the coffee family Rubiaceae

Asperula, commonly known as woodruff, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It contains 194 species and has a wide distribution area from Europe, northern Africa, temperate and subtropical Asia to Australasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose madder</span> Red paint made from the madder plant

Rose madder is a red paint made from the pigment madder lake, a traditional lake pigment extracted from the common madder plant Rubia tinctorum.

<i>Vincetoxicum</i> Genus of plants

Vincetoxicum is a genus of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Although the species in Vincetoxicum have sometimes been included in Cynanchum, chemical and molecular evidence shows that Vincetoxicum is more closely related to Tylophora, now included in Vincetoxicum. The generic name means "poison-beater" in Botanical Latin because of the plants' supposed antidotal effects against snakebite.

<i>Rubia cordifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Rubia cordifolia, often known as common madder or Indian madder, is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. It has been cultivated for a red pigment derived from roots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1,3-Dihydroxyanthraquinone</span> Chemical compound

1,3-Dihydroxyanthraquinone, also called purpuroxanthin or xanthopurpurin, is an organic compound with formula C
14H
8O
4 that occurs in the plant Rubia cordifolia. It is one of ten dihydroxyanthraquinone isomers. Its molecular structure can be viewed as being derived from anthraquinone by replacement of two hydrogen atoms (H) by hydroxyl groups (-OH).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1,4-Dihydroxyanthraquinone</span> Chemical compound

1,4-Dihydroxyanthraquinone, also called quinizarin or Solvent Orange 86, is an organic compound derived from anthroquinone. Quinizarin is an orange or red-brown crystalline powder. It is formally derived from anthraquinone by replacement of two hydrogen atoms by hydroxyl (OH) groups. It is one of ten dihydroxyanthraquinone isomers and occurs in small amounts in the root of the madder plant, Rubia tinctorum.

<i>Rubia tinctorum</i> Species of flowering plant (rose madder)

Rubia tinctorum, the rose madder or common madder or dyer's madder, is a herbaceous perennial plant species belonging to the bedstraw and coffee family Rubiaceae.

<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>Rubia peregrina</i> Species of flowering plant in the coffee and madder family Rubiaceae

Rubia peregrina, the common wild madder, is a herbaceous perennial plant species belonging to the bedstraw and coffee family Rubiaceae.

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

Asperula tinctoria, common name dyer's woodruff, is a plant in the family Rubiaceae, a native of much of northern and central Europe from France to Russia and also of Western Siberia.

References

  1. ↑ "Rubia in the World Checklist of Rubiaceae" . Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  2. ↑ Cannon J, Cannon M (2002). Dye Plants and Dyeing (2 ed.). A & C Black. pp. 76–80. ISBN   978-0-7136-6374-7.
  3. ↑ St. Clair, Kassia (2016). The Secret Lives of Colour. London: John Murray. pp. 152–153. ISBN   9781473630819. OCLC   936144129.
  4. ↑ "Material Name: madder". material record. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. November 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved January 1, 2009.
  5. ↑ Herod. iv. 189 [ full citation needed ]
  6. ↑ Dioscorides iii. 160 [ full citation needed ]
  7. ↑ Hippocrates, De morb. mul. i. [ full citation needed ]
  8. ↑ Pliny xix. 17 [ full citation needed ]
  9. 1 2 Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Madder". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 280.
  10. ↑ Herball, p. 960 [ full citation needed ]
  11. ↑ Pereira, Mat. Med., vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 52 [ full citation needed ]

Further reading

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