Brilliant red dye made from insects

Craft & Design Science
Brilliant red dye made from insects
flickr_user_scoutj_cochineal.jpg

Photo courtesy Flickr user Scoutj.

This article just drew my attention to the interesting story behind carmine, which is a pigment precipitated from carminic acid (shown below) extracted from the bodies of Dactylopius coccus, the so-called “cochineal” insect, of which the acid comprises up to 24% of dry body weight. The cochineal is a parasite of cacti of the genus opuntia, from which it has been harvested in South America since pre-Columbian times. It is carmine that produced the “red” of the famous British “red coats,” and today carmine is still produced in great quantity for use in fabric, cosmetics, and as a natural food coloring. (Vegans beware!) [via Neatorama]

Carminic_acid_structure.png
Dactylopius_coccus_(Barlovento)_04_ies.jpg

More: Natural Dyeing 101 from CRAFT

4 thoughts on “Brilliant red dye made from insects

  1. Tim says:

    For more, see: “Color: A Natural History of the Palette, Victoria Finlay, Chapter 4: Red.

  2. Sean Michael Ragan says:

    Thanks. Just ordered myself a copy!

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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