Redwood

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under redwood (disambiguation) .

Brazil wood Paubrasilia echinata

As Redwood or Brasilholz red be dye ( brazilin , Santalin u. A.) Supplying species with reddish heartwood referred mainly (from the tree species of the genus spp Caesalpina. ) Caesalpinia . The term is also used for other tropical woods .

etymology

The name Brazil wood comes from the Middle Latin (p) bre (a) silium also (p) bre (a) xilium also later versinum , verxilium (from it verzino) and old French bresil and later the Middle English brasil (crumble, cut off; coloring with shredded wood) or the old French, German brese , as well as the Portuguese word "brasa", which means something like glowing coal , embers , embers . Later in Middle High German prisin , prisilje , then in Middle Low German (p) brizilien , (p) bresilien for redwood, red dye, red dye.

The Portuguese later used the old name for naming Brazil (Terra do Brasil) due to the large amount of Brazilian wood (Portuguese pau ). They called it "pau brasil" either crumbled wood or glowing wood .

Brazil pusher; grinds redwood to obtain the Brazilian dye. Nuremberg 1592

history

The dye braziline was probably used by the Incas in ancient Peru and by the Maya and Aztecs in ancient Mexico . Also Heraclius in his work De Coloribus et Romanorum Artibus mentions the use of Brazil wood for dyeing and manufacture of color lakes . Redwood or redwood varnish are considered to be a natural organic colorant in occidental medieval illumination . In the Middle Ages, before the discovery of America , the redwood mainly came from East India via the Silk Road . This trade route was interrupted around 1450 when the Turks conquered Constantinople . The use of redwood was therefore very limited during this period. After the discovery of America, the redwood was imported from there in large quantities. Since the dyeings with redwood were not lightfast , the use was soon restricted again. When synthetic dyes appeared in the middle of the 19th century, consumption fell massively; it only experienced a renewed boom in the early 1970s thanks to the hippie movement , which propagated a return to naturalness. However, due to the ecological consequences of the massive deforestation of the dye-producing trees, as well as their partial classification on the list of endangered species , declined again.

Redwood species

The taxonomy of the different types of wood that Brazil supplies is often confusing and incorrect in the literature, the types recognized today are:

Name / dye / genus	distribution
Santa Marta wood or Nicaragua wood (Brasilin) Caesalpinia vesicaria L.	Central America , Florida , Guyana
Brazilwood, Bahiarotholz, Pernambuco (also Fernambukholz ) (brasilin) Paubrasilia echinata (Lam.) E.Gagnon, HCLima & GPLewis (Syn .: Caesalpinia echinata Lam. )	Brazil
Sappan wood also East Indian red wood or Japan wood (Brasilin) Caesalpinia sappan L. Caesalpinia decapetala (Roth) Alston	Southeast Asia , Australia , Polynesia Africa
Brazil wood, Bahamari wood or Jamaican wood (Brasilin) Haematoxylum brasiletto H.Karst. Caesalpinia violacea (Mill.) Standl. (Syn .: Caesalpinia brasiliensis L. )	Mexico , Central America
Erythroxylum spp. (Dye from the bark) Erythroxylum suberosum A.St.-Hil.	Central America, Brazil
Sandalwood (Santalin) Pterocarpus santalinus Lf	East India , Ceylon , China
Padouk (Santalin) Pterocarpus spp. Pterocarpus soyauxii deaf. Pterocarpus angolensis DC.	West Africa
Camba wood (Santalin) Baphia nitida Lodd.	West Africa

properties

Redwood consists of the trunk wood (heartwood) that has been freed from sapwood , it is either grated or processed into chips.

Important dyes were obtained from this, the water-insoluble santalin (from Pterocarpus spp. , Baphia nitida ) and the water-soluble braziline (from Caesalpina spp. , Paubrasilia echinata , Haematoxylum brasiletto ) the dyes belong to the flavonoids . By oxidation, Braziline is converted into Braziline (C ₁₆ H ₁₂ O ₅ ) and colored, santalin does not require oxidation for coloring.

use

Violin bows made of brazil wood

The dyes obtained from red woods are used to dye textiles, the wood is processed into precious woods ( inlays , marquetry , furniture) and turned wood , as well as into bows for string instruments.

Until the end of the 19th century, the dyes were also processed into varnishes. The lakes have received different names: garnet paint , Marronlack , Dahlialack , cochineal red (false, true cochineal comes from an aphid) or purple paint (false, true purple comes from a sea slug). Differences between the individual lacquers can be found in the type of redwood used, the stain and possible admixtures of other organic dyes. The redwood lacquers, dissolved in aqueous binders , served as paints for wallpaper and colored paper , but were also used as paints or printing inks . The Florentine lacquer is a mixture of redwood and carmine ; this varnish was used in cosmetics for face creams and lipsticks .

Web links

• Redwood . materialarchiv.ch; accessed on January 9, 2017.
• Redwood . (PDF; 27 kB) kremer-pigmente.com; accessed on January 9, 2017.

literature

• P. Heermann (Ed.): Encyclopedia of textile chemical technology. Springer, 1930, ISBN 978-3-642-93836-8 , pp. 451 ff.
• Gerhard Holzmann, Matthias Wangelin, Rainer Bruns: Natural and vegetable building materials. 2nd edition, Springer Vieweg, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8348-1321-3 , p. 316 ff.
• Otto Warburg : The flora. Volume 2, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig, Vienna 1916, OCLC 311970837 , p. 256, Textarchiv - Internet Archive .
• Gustav Schultz, Paul Julius : Dye tables. 5th edition. Weidmann, 1914, p. 360, OCLC 457745098 .
• Rita J. Adrosko: Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing. Dover Publications, 1971, ISBN 0-486-22688-3 , pp. 25 ff.
• H. Schweppe: Handbook of natural dyes. Nikol, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 978-3-933203-46-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich Christian Diez : Etymological Dictionary of Romance Languages. 1st part, 2nd edition. Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1861, OCLC 4988345 , p. 82.
2. ^ TC Donkin: An Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages. Williams and Norgate, 1864, OCLC 1327119 , p. 91.
3. ^ GE Wickens: Economic Botany: Principles and Practices. Springer, 2001, ISBN 978-1-4020-2228-9 , p. 292.
4. ^ William Jervis Jones: Historical Lexicon of German Color Designations. Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 2013, ISBN 978-3-05-005953-2 , pp. 130 f, 588-593.
5. ↑ Eduard Printz: Construction and timber. 2nd edition, Dogma, 2013, ISBN 978-3-95580-771-9 (reprint), p. 172 f.
6. ^ William Jervis Jones: German Color Terms. John Benjamin, Amsterdam 2013, ISBN 978-90-272-4610-3 , p. 113.
7. ↑ David Maarsen: Dye plants of Switzerland. Bachelor thesis , ZHAW, 2009, p. 12, prospecierara.ch (PDF; 1.19 MB) accessed on January 7, 2017.
8. ^ Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Ruth Siddall: Pigment Compendium. 2nd. Edition, Routledge, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7506-8980-9 , pp. 66 f.
9. ↑ MM Grandtner, Julien Chevrette: Dictionary of Trees. Volume 2: South America: Nomenclature, Taxonomy and Ecology , Academic Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-12-396954-5 , p. 89.
10. ↑ John Lindley : The Vegetable Kingdom. Cambridge University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-108-07722-4 (Reprint), p. 391.
11. ↑ PCM Jansen, D. Cardon: Dyes and Tannins. Prota Foundation, 2005, ISBN 90-5782-159-1 , pp. 132, 474, 488.
12. ↑ Sabine Struckmeier: Textile dyeing from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. Waxmann, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8309-2527-9 , pp. 184-190.
13. ↑ Colored woods and colored woods . (PDF; 777 kB) h-roth-kunst.com, accessed on January 11, 2017.