Tournesol
Tournesol is the French name for a dye that can be obtained from the plant Chrozophora tinctoria , a species of the genus Chrozophora .
After a way to extract the dye was found in the 13th century, the rise to a color often used in book illumination began, soon also in food coloring. The name was later transferred to many dyes and the cloths and leaves dyed with them. At the beginning of the 17th century, tournesol was replaced by the more readily available and less volatile mineral pigments. The last recipes to include tournesol as an ingredient date from the first half of the 19th century.
Tournesol was roughly on par with woad or indigo . Lapis lazuli and its substitute azure blue were considered to be of higher quality.
Coloring
Depending on the preparation, a blue, purple or red shade could be obtained. The dye reacts to a basic or acidic environment similar to a litmus test . In French litmus paper is therefore referred to as paper de tournesol .
Folium
The coloring agent, also known as folium (Latin for "leaf"), comes from the fruits of the plant and is described by Cennino Cennini in his work Il libro dell'Arte . It was primarily used to dye paper and frescoes , but also textiles .
Food coloring
In the book Du fait de cuisine of Chiquart is recommended Tournesol in milk soak. In François-Pierre de La Varenne's book Le Cuisinier François , it is rubbed in water with irises .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Günter Heubl: Hager's Manual of pharmacy practice: Drug A - K . Springer, 1994, ISBN 978-3-540-52688-9 ( page 357 in the Google book search).
- ^ Georg August Langguth: New scene of nature . 1776, ISBN 978-1-173-57610-3 ( page 98 in the Google book search).
- ^ John Block Friedman: Northern English books, owners, and makers in the late Middle Ages . 1996, ISBN 978-0-8156-2649-7 ( page 86 in the Google book search).