Dye plant

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Indigofera tinctoria

Dye plants are plants that contain ingredients that are used for dyeing .

All plants contain dyes, but only a few meet the requirements for economy , quality (e.g. washfastness, lightfastness ), biological availability and behavior in terms of dyeing.

For a long time only natural dyes , mainly from plants, were available to dye textiles. With the development of synthetic dyes from the 19th century, dye plants lost much of their importance. Today the importance is increasing again for ecological reasons or reasons of sustainability . A total of around 150 plant species are known whose dyes are or have been used.

Dye plants also provide dyes for food, cosmetics, paper, etc.

Function, chemistry and use

Structural formula of indigo
(see article also dye )

Dyes are of essential importance for photosynthesis in plants , are important as signal colors for flowers and fruits, as secondary metabolites with defense and other functions. Vegetable dyes are organic compounds that absorb portions of visible light . These compounds usually contain conjugated double bonds and / or aromatic regions. In these areas of the compounds, electrons are in special states, which enable the absorption of certain wavelengths of light. The portion that is not absorbed is reflected and can be perceived as a color tone by the human eye .

Depending on the area of ​​application, different compounds of vegetable origin are used:

During dyeing , textile material is colored by colorants in dyeing or printing processes. In textile and leather dyeing, the material is usually first prepared by staining or tanning agents in order to achieve a more permanent color combination and / or special color nuances. In addition to metal salts such as alum , components of animal or vegetable substances such as urine or tannins, e.g. B. from oak bark . In painting , color varnishes were mainly used, in which the vegetable pigment was applied to a substrate such as chalk or white lead so that it could then be painted like a pigment . Vegetable colors can also be applied like a glaze without a substrate .

History and significance today

(see also article dyes and dyeing )
The woad ( Isatis tinctoria ) has been an important dye plant for blue in Europe since the Iron Age .
The root of the madder ( Rubia tinctorum ) has provided red dye in Europe since the Roman Iron Age.

The use of natural dyes can be traced back to the more recent Paleolithic Age (15,000 to 9,000 BC). For a long time only vegetable dyes played an important role in the dyeing of fabrics made from natural fibers . Dyes were also often important and valuable commodities . In the Middle Ages , people began to grow dye plants in Europe. The most important were woad for blue, madder for red and dyer's rossa (dyer's woad) for yellow, as well as black mallow and peony . The color extraction and processing followed strict rules that were established and controlled by the craft guilds .

Since the 19th century , more and more synthetic dyes based on coal and petroleum were produced, which replaced the vegetable dyes .

Today dye plants are of little economic importance in Germany, but are used in the hobby sector. In recent years, there has also been a renewed economic interest in naturally dyed textiles. Attempts are being made to adapt cultivation, processing and use methods for dye plants to today's ecological and technical requirements and thus to make these renewable raw materials attractive again.

Plant species

(see also list of dyes )

Depending on the constituents of the species, certain shades of color can be produced from the dye plants. By using different parts of the plant (leaves, flowers, bark, roots, fruits) or ingredients, mixture, pre- or post-treatment, some plant species can also achieve more than one color tone. Well-known dye plants are:

See: List of dye plants

swell

  • Brochure from the Agency for Renewable Resources e. V. (FNR, 2011): Dye plants . ( PDF 3.5 MB )

literature

  • Lutz Roth, Kurt Kormann, Helmut Schweppe: Dye plants, plant colors. ecomed, Landsberg / Lech 1992, ISBN 978-3-609-65490-4 .
  • Helmut Schweppe: Handbook of natural dyes. ecomed, 1993, ISBN 978-3-609-65130-9 .
  • Eberhard Prinz: dye plants; Instructions for staining use in culture and medicine. 2nd revised and corrected edition, Verlag Schweizerbart Stuttgart (2014), ISBN 978-3-510-65291-4 .
  • Renate Kaiser-Alexnat: Coloring agents from nature. An overview with a review and perspectives. epubli, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8442-2095-7 , online (short preview) . (PDF; 1 MB), from dyeplants.de, accessed on January 7, 2017.
  • David Maarsen: Dye Plants of Switzerland. Bachelor thesis , ZHAW, 2009, online (PDF; 1.19 MB), on prospecierara.ch, accessed on January 7, 2017.
  • Rebecca Burgess: Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes. Artisan, 2011, ISBN 978-1-57965-425-2 .
  • Franco Brunello: The Art of Dyeing in the History of Mankind. Pozza Neri, Vicenza 1973, OCLC 979709 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e. V. (FNR): Dye Plants (PDF; 1.0 MB), Gülzow (2004), accessed on March 19, 2010
  2. ^ Institute for Dye Plants: Dye Plants and Natural Dyes , accessed on March 19, 2010

Web links

Commons : Dye plant  - collection of images, videos and audio files