Indigofera tinctoria
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2022) |
| Indigofera tinctoria | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| 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 | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
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.
Description
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species".
- ^ "Indigofera tinctoria (true indigo)". Invasive Species Compendium.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Indigofera tinctoria L." Plants of the World online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
- ^ Pigments through the ages
Further reading
[edit]- Feeser, Andrea. Red, White, and Black Make Blue: Indigo in the Fabric of Colonial South Carolina Life (University of Georgia Press; 2013) 140 pages; scholarly study explains how the plant's popularity as a dye bound together local and transatlantic communities, slave and free, in the 18th century.
- Grohmann, Adolf. Färberei and Indigofabrikation in Grohmann, A. 1933. Südarabien als Wirtschaftsgebiet, Schriften der Philosophischen Fakultät der Deutschen Universität in Prag 13th vol. (Rohrer; Leipzig) 45-8.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Indigofera tinctoria at Wikimedia Commons
 | This Faboideae-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |