Indigo plant. Indigofera tinctiva, false tincium, Gerard. Growing from seeds, planting and care. Photos of species. Disadvantages of use

Indigofera- a low shrub up to 2 m in height, belonging to the legume family, one of the species of the genus Indigofera. Its homeland is India, where it grows everywhere. It is also cultivated in many tropical countries for its blue dye. Currently, more than 700 species of indigofera are known in the world.

Indigofera leaves are elliptical, the flowers are pink or purple, collected in small racemes, the fruit is a bean with 4-6 seeds.

Depending on the climate of the area where it grows, indigofera can be annual, biennial or perennial.

Indigofera is often planted to strengthen the soil, as well as for decorative purposes due to beautiful flowers. Prefers sunny areas, with slight shading from direct rays.

Indigo obtained from indigofera leaves. Indagophera leaves contain a colorless glycoside, indican. Under the action of enzymes, the glycoside is broken down into glucose and the indoxyl aglycone. The aglycone, also colorless, immediately oxidizes in air and turns into indigotine— indigo blue.

The lees from the fermented leaves are mixed with some strong base, such as lye, pressed into cakes, which are dried and then reduced to powder. The powder is mixed with different substances to produce different shades of blue and purple.
Indigo - medium color between dark blue and purple.

The name of the color comes from India, the homeland of the plant, and the name of the plant is indigofera- formed by combining Latin “indigo” and “ferre” (carry, bring). In English this color is called - "Indian blue", i.e. "Indian blue" Traditionally, indigo is included in the classic seven-color optical spectrum, but modern scientists do not consider it in a separate color and classified as purple.

Two dyes are obtained from indigofera leaf powder - indigo, a very durable dark blue fabric paint and Basma, hair dye.

The first jeans were painted with dye from indigofera leaves.

The process of dyeing fabrics in a natural way is very labor-intensive and requires a lot of physical and time expenditure. Indigofera leaves are soaked in large vats and thoroughly kneaded for several days until the maximum amount of thick blue liquid is obtained. Then the water is drained, and the resulting dye is dried in small portions. The resulting indigo powder is mixed with crushed lemon and left to ferment for at least a week. Particularly valuable, intense paints are paints obtained only after many years of fermentation. To obtain the rarest shades, paint is buried in the ground in vats. This gives optimal temperature until the paint “ripens”. When the dye is applied to fabric, it initially takes on a green tint, but then becomes a deep blue color when exposed to oxygen. Coloring occurs in several stages. Dry the finished fabrics in the sun.

Basma- These are crushed leaves of indigofera, having a greenish-gray color. Basma is a natural vegetable dye - an environmentally friendly product containing biologically active substances and vitamins.

In ancient times, basma was considered a very valuable commodity. The use of this paint spoke of the wealth of the family and the head of the house. Basma was used by both men and women; even pets were painted with it to emphasize the well-being of the family.

Initially, wild indigofera leaves, which were brought from India, were used to obtain basma. Then the plant began to be actively cultivated and huge indigofera plantations appeared. This dye was extremely popular among the Persians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Sumerians and Abyssinians and was worth its weight in gold!

Basma is not used separately for hair coloring, otherwise it may result in a blue-green color. It can only be used in combination with henna. Since basma contains indigo, if henna is added to it, the presence of a red component will prevent the appearance of a green tint. In turn, the blue component basma neutralizes the rich red color of henna, making the coloring result more calm.

Basma is mixed with henna in various proportions to obtain various shades - black, chocolate, bronze, chestnut. To achieve the required shades, other herbs are also added to basma and henna - Arabica coffee, beets, rhubarb, etc.

The result of hair coloring with basma and henna depends on factors such as natural color hair, its structure (thickness, dryness), temperature of the dye and water, the length of time the dye is kept on the hair, the proportions in which henna and basma are mixed.

Dark hair tones are obtained by mixing with henna large quantity basma (black tea and black coffee are also added). The darker the desired shade, the more basma must be in the hair coloring mixture. To obtain certain colors, the following proportions are taken. Light brown tone - 1 part henna and 1 part basma, light chestnut - 1 part henna and 1 part basma, chestnut - 1 part henna and 2 parts basma, bronze - 2 parts henna and 1 part basma, black - 1 part henna and 3 parts of basma, “black tulip” - 1 part of henna and 2 parts of basma, as well as a few tablespoons of freshly squeezed beet juice. The exposure time of the dye on the hair is also different: for a light brown tone - 30 minutes, for light chestnut - 1 hour, for chestnut - 1.5 hours, for bronze - 1.5 hours, for black - 4 hours.

You can dye your hair with henna and basma sequentially, one dye after another, or by first mixing both dyes. Although the results are approximately the same, it is recommended to use henna first and then basma.

Basma will correct unwanted hair color resulting from henna. By changing the ratio of henna and basma, the duration of exposure to paints, you get the most different colors hair that, after coloring, has natural look. A sequential hair coloring method is used to achieve black color. This method is also recommended for coloring gray hair.

Method of preparing basma. To prepare basma, the powder is poured hot water and mixes well. Then, with continuous stirring, the solution is brought to a boil over low heat. When it boils, remove it from the heat. A properly prepared basma solution has the consistency of liquid sour cream . The basma pulp thickens quickly, so it needs to be made more liquid than the henna solution. While working, you need to add a little basma to the slurry. hot water. The thicker and longer hair, the more solution is required. The solution is prepared immediately before staining. The darker the desired color, the longer the solution is kept on the head.

If the hair color is not dark enough, then it is dyed a second time with basma. If, after dyeing with basma, the hair turns out to be darker than necessary, it is washed with water and vinegar or lemon, or immediately washed with soap. Basma is a very resistant paint, it is difficult to wash it off, so it is better to underexpose it than to overexpose it.

When dyeing at the same time, henna and basma are mixed, poured with hot water and stirred until a homogeneous mass is obtained, similar in consistency to thick sour cream.

Indigofera leaves are also used in medicine. Indigofera contains indirubin, rotenoid deguelin, dehydrodegulin, rotenol, teforsin and sumatrol. The roots and leaves of the plant are used in medicine.

Henna and basma- the only ones natural remedies for coloring, which, moreover, care for hair from roots to ends. Thus, hair dye containing indigofera leaf powder is environmentally friendly and not only colors the hair, but also contributes to its health. And such paints can be used often.

Basma can also be used exclusively for hair care, without coloring them. To do this, the time the dye remains on the hair is reduced to several minutes.

Indigofera is included in many products hair care, not giving any coloring effect. These are products for strengthening and cleansing hair - shampoos, masks, oils, hair creams.

Indigofera strengthens the hair roots and their structure along the entire length, nourishes the hair, stimulates its growth and creates the finest protective film. Leaves hair soft, delicate and manageable. Facilitates combing and prevents tangling. Adds volume to hair and makes it fuller.

Included in: Vedika hair cream, Amla Vedika hair oil

Perhaps the most famous dye among non-professionals, indigo, was once actually produced from plants. Therefore, clothes of saturated of blue color was then far from the most accessible. Today, almost the entire volume of dye produced is synthetic, and “blue jeans” are synonymous with a democratic mass product. However, we are more interested in that same natural indigo, which was obtained from the leaves of indigofera plants, as well as its younger (in importance, but not in age) brother - the dye obtained from woad plants. We will tell you about the technology, history and confrontation between these two ancient natural dyes.

Indigofera tinctiva(Indigofera tinctoria) - herbaceous plant from the legume family. Indigofera bushes reach two meters in height. Indigofera grows in India, Egypt, Japan, southern regions Europe, Russia and the USA.

If you think a little about the name, you will come to a completely correct guess - this dye is named after India, where the most extensive indigofera plantations grew and which has been the center of its distribution since time immemorial. In general, experts call indigo one of the first dyes on Earth that has come down to us - it was used in ancient civilizations - Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece and Rome, not to mention India itself and the countries South-East Asia. Mostly silk was dyed with indigo, but not only. Cuneiform clay tablets, which scientists presumably date back to the 7th century BC, describe a recipe for dyeing using indigo wool. Needless to say, this dye was a luxury item, and clothing of the corresponding colors was a marker of the nobility and wealth of its owners, and in completely different societies - from the Tuareg nomads of West Africa to the aristocrats of East Asia.

Dried natural indigo tiles
Skein of indigo-dyed linen thread

In fact, processing leaves into indigo has become a real craft, often the only lifelong profession. Huge clay vats were used to soak the leaves; in countries with a warm climate, a hole was simply dug in the ground for them, and in colder places, coals were used for heating.

PROCESS OF OBTAINING DYE FROM INDIGO

Actually, the main active substance in the production of indigo is indican - a colorless water-soluble substance, the content of which in plant leaves usually ranges from 0.2% to 0.8%. The leaves were soaked in water and fermented, turning the clear indican into blue indigotine. The precipitate of this solution was mixed with a strong base such as lye, the hardened mass was pressed into tiles, and then it was dried and turned into powder. And only then this powder was added to various solutions to obtain different shades of blue and violet.

Woad dyeing(Ísatis tinctória) - a plant of the cabbage family. Grows in the steppe and desert zones of the Caucasus, in Central Asia and Eastern Siberia, as well as in North Africa. In general, woad is much less fastidious than its famous competitor, and therefore, before indigo, it was used from ancient times in Europe.

Woad differs from indigo in its more “dusty” and “greenish” hue.

Archaeologists date woad seeds found on the territory of modern France and Germany to the Neolithic, last period Stone Age. Woad was one of the first dyes discovered by the ancient Egyptians, who used it to dye mummy robes. And the warlike tribes of the Picts, with whom Julius Caesar fought, applied woad to their faces and bodies. In the Middle Ages, the French city of Toulouse, in the vicinity of which a huge amount of woad grew, literally flourished thanks to this plant - the city's leaders exported the dye in huge quantities and built stately mansions, many of which have survived to this day.

PROCESS OF OBTAINING BLUE DYE FROM VOID

The leaves were ground with a little water into a uniform mass and left to ferment in tall pots for fifteen days, after which it was formed into balls and dried. These dark blue-green or yellow-green balls, when rubbed with water, produced a solution that stained fabrics blue. To be fair, it must be said that woad is essentially a technically cheap substitute for indigofera. Its leaves, as a rule, contain less of the sought-after indigotine, and the color was often not so rich, rather “dusty.”

Confrontation between woad and indigo

As often happens with strategically important national economy products, woad found itself at the center of real financial and political conflicts, quarreling with indigo imported from India. Day by day, the merchants who grew richer due to the cabbage family plants - “ to domestic producers“The emergence of a stronger competitor from a technological point of view was completely out of the question, and here we are faced with shining example medieval lobbying of interests.

In 1609, the French monarch Henry IV prohibited the use of “Indian potion” under penalty of death. Both woad and natural indigo died (at least to the general public) at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when effective method synthesize blue dye. Although it is worth saying that in a number of German states some factories still dye their products using natural woad.

INDIGO AND WAIDA TODAY

The most practical way to synthesize indigo was discovered just before the curtain XIX century, and XX century finally sank the "blue gold" label, making indigo one of the classic colors in a wide range of textile dyes. By the way, now synthetic indigo is obtained from, at first glance, rather unexpected substances - oil or coal tar. The irony of fate is that once an integral attribute of aristocracy and wealth, indigo went into the service of the working class in the last century. Jeans, chambray shirts, even the term “blue collars” itself gives us an idea of ​​what dye was most often used in the production of work clothes.

1. Woad production in Thuringia, illustration from 1725. 2. Production of dye from woad, early 20th century. 3. Ancient Britons painted with woad dye. 4. Getting Indigo 5. Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart. The face is painted with a dye obtained from woad. 6. This is what woad balls look like. 7. Box set for painting with woad at home.

It is worth saying that even today woad has not become a useless weed, but is actively used in completely different areas- in order to protect against harmful chemicals, tree trunks are painted with it, used for the production of ink, primarily for printers, glucobrassicin contained in woad is a component of cancer-preventing drugs, and in China ethnoscience and even suggests using woad leaves to treat a whole range of unpleasant ailments from influenza and scarlet fever to syphilis.

HOW TO PAINT WITH INDIGO

One pair of jeans requires from three to twelve grams of this dye. Even less is required to dye silk or wool. There are many methods of painting, but we will consider the highest quality and most commonly used, albeit not the simplest, rope method of coloring.

Indigo dyeing process:

Items dyed with woad

(or true indigo) grows in India and is cultivated in many tropical countries to obtain the blue dye - indigo. The plant served as the first source of indigo dye for textiles. Today most dyes are synthetic, but natural dye from Indigofera tinctifera is still available. Black hair dye is produced from the leaves of Indigosphere tincture, known as a commercial product called. Indigofera is also widely grown as a soil amendment and ground cover, along with other legumes.

Indigo dye is obtained from processed leaves of Indigofera tinctifera. The leaves are soaked in water before fermentation to convert the indican glycoside, which is colorless in the leaves, into indigotine (indigo blue dye) during fermentation. The lees from the fermented solution of the leaves are mixed with a strong base such as alkali, then pressed into blocks, dried and ground into powder. This powder is mixed with various other substances to produce shades of blue and purple.

Indigo dye is also obtained from another representative of the genus Indigofera - Indigofera suffruticosa.

In Indonesia (Sudan) they use indigosphere dye ( local name Tarum) as a dye for batik.

Indigofera tinctifera has also been used as a source of nematicide (a substance toxic to worms that feed on plant roots).

The phytochemical components of indigofera tinctifera that determine its therapeutic effect are: galactomannan, consisting of galactose and mannose in a molar ratio of 1:1.52, glycoside, indigotin, flavonoids, terpinoids, alkaloids and glycosides, indirubin, rotenoids.

Adverse reactions: May irritate eyes and cause dermatitis.

Use of indigofera tinctifera in medicine

Research on Indigofera tinctifera has shown that it has anti-hyperglycemic activity, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory activity, cytotoxicity, anti-hepatoprotective activity, anti-diabetic activity, as well as anticonvulsant effect.

In Indian medicine it is used for constipation, liver disease, heart palpitations, gout, as a bitter, thermogenic, laxative and expectorant.

The use of indigofera tinctifera in folk medicine

The leaves of Indigofera tinctica are considered medicinal. In Vietnam they are used to treat boils and various skin diseases. In Indian traditional medicine (Ayurveda), they are used internally for liver diseases, as well as for eye diseases and bronchitis. Used as an antidote for scorpion stings.

Synonyms:

Indigofera anil var. orthocarpa DC.

Indigofera bergii Vatke

Indigofera cinerascens DC.

Indigofera houer Forssk.

Indigofera indica Lam.

Indigofera oligophylla Baker

Indigofera orthocarpa (DC.) O.Berg & CFSchmidt

Indigofera sumatrana Gaertn.

Indigofera tinctoria Blanco

Indigofera tulerensis Drake

Anila tinctoria var. normalis Kuntze

The heat passed and was replaced by cold and endless rain in our city. I drink hot mate, knit and listen to Mine Reid. This wonderful writer is distinguished not only by wonderful stories about the life of the American continent in ancient times, but also by beautiful detailed descriptions of nature, in particular the vegetation that interests me so much

At the very beginning of the book “Osceola, Chief of the Seminoles” he writes about plantations of the indigo plant (from which they obtain indigo dye - beautiful dark blue color). And I have always been interested in the topic of natural and plant dyes, especially since I deeply love this color. I decided to conduct a small photo investigation But first, a quote from Mine Reed.

The house is adjacent to a vast space fenced with bars. In the center of it rises a huge canopy, occupying half an acre of land. He is supported by strong wooden poles. Under the canopy one can see huge oblong vats, hollowed out from cypress trunks. Three vats, installed one above the other, communicate with each other via taps. The precious plant, indigo, is soaked in these vats and the blue dye is extracted from it.

Beyond the fence are wide fields bordered by a dark belt of cypress forests that hide the horizon. Indigo grows in these fields. However, there are other crops here: maize, sweet potatoes, rice and sugar cane. But they are not intended for sale, but for personal use.

Indigo is sown in straight rows with intervals. The plants do not develop simultaneously: some have just blossomed, and their leaves look like young trefoils; others are already in full bloom, over two feet tall, and resemble ferns. They are distinguished by the light green feathery leaves characteristic of all legumes - indigo belongs to this family. Sometimes butterfly-like flowers bloom, but they are rarely allowed to reach full bloom. A different fate awaits them: the purple flowers are mercilessly cut off.

Hundreds of people move inside the fence and in the indigo fields. Except for one or two, they are all Africans, all slaves. Everyone is dressed in work clothes. The men wear light linen trousers, brightly colored shirts and hats made of palm leaves. Few people can show off their outfit. Some are naked to the waist, and their black skin sparkles in the sun like ebony. The women are dressed more colorfully - in striped cotton dresses, on their heads they wear Madras scarves made of bright checkered fabric. Some of the dresses are tastefully made and very beautiful. A hairstyle similar to a turban gives women a special picturesque look.

Both men and women work on the indigo plantation. Some cut plants and bind them into sheaves; others drag these sheaves from the fields under the shed; there they are thrown into the upper trough - the “boiler vat”, while others drain the water and “squeeze out”. Other workers use shovels to shovel sediment into drainage channels, while several people are busy drying and molding paint. Everyone does a certain job and, I must say, it’s quite fun.

And here's what he saysWikipedia about the indigo plant:

Indigofera tinctoria (lat. Indigofera tinctoria) is a plant of the Legume family, a species of the genus Indigofera, originating from India and cultivated in many tropical countries to obtain blue dye.

A low shrub up to 2 m high. The leaves are odd-pinnate with 4-7 pairs of leaflets. The leaves are elliptical, glabrous above, appressed below. The flowers are pink or purple, moth-type, collected in small axillary racemes. The fruit is a white-pubescent linear-cylindrical bean with 4-6 seeds.

Indigo blue is an extremely durable fabric dye, but is now artificially synthesized. Indigofera tinctalis leaf powder mixed with henna produces a black hair dye called basma.

The leaves of the plant are also considered medicinal. In Vietnam they are used to treat boils and various skin diseases. In India they are used internally for liver diseases.

The secret to the blue color of denim is indigo dye. When the United States consisted of 13 American colonies, and jeans were just work clothes, indigo turned out to be the best and most durable dye, which also provided a practical color.