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Alkanet Root [100 g bag] (3.5 oz.)
Item No: 455:120100
Category: 27
Price:
$3.85
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Quantity:
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Description:
Common Names: Bugloss, spanish bugloss root, orchanet root, alkanet root, dyer's bugloss root.
Color: Purple
Colour Index: Not Listed
ASTM Lightfastness: Not tested
Origin and History
Roots from the plant Alkanna tinctoria; also known as Anchusa tinctoria. In dyeing, alkanet root gives burgundies and purples in an alkaline dye bath. Extracting first with alcohol enhances the color and then adding the extract solution to pre-mordanted wool or silk in a dye bath. Precipitated on a inert base, alkanet root yields a purple lake pigment. Also used in varnishes for fine wood products, such as violins.
Alkanet is a biennial or perennial herb that grows to 12 inches high. It is similar to borage, with rough leaves, thick tap root and small bright blue flowers in early summer. The name Anchusa is derived from the Greek anchousa for paint, from the use of the root as a dye. The species are hispid or pubescent herbs, with oblong, entire leaves, and bracteated racemes, rolled up before the flowers expand. The corolla is rather small, between funnel and salver-shaped; usually purplish-blue, but in some species yellow or whitish; the calyx enlarges in fruit. The root, which is often very large in proportion to the size of the plant, yields in many of the species a red dye from the rind.
Preparation of Lake Pigment
A lake pigment is a natural organic pigment prepared when a dye has been precipitated on a powdered, colorless, inorganic substrate. The term derives from the Latin word lacca, used in the Middle Ages to denote both lake pigments and the Lac dye. Because of its transparency, aluminum hydroxide is the most commonly used substrate or carrier. Barites, such as barium sulfate, provide an opaque lake pigment. Other compounds used as carriers are: chalk, clay, gypsum, tin oxide, zinc oxide, white earth, and green earth. Often a mordant, such as tannic acid, lactic acid, or sodium phosphate, is used to fix the dye to the substrate.
100 gram bag
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours.
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