X-Nico

5 unusual facts about indigo dye


Anarkali

William Finch reached Lahore in February 1611 (only 11 years after the supposed death of Anarkali), to sell the indigo he had purchased at Bayana on behalf of the East India Company.

Harish Chandra Mukherjee

Indigo cultivation had been greatly increased from the 18th century.

Otto Unverdorben

In 1826 at the age of 20, Unverdorben discovered aniline, which he obtained from the distillation of natural vegetable indigo.

Peter Woulfe

In 1779, Woulfe reported the formation of a yellow dye when indigo was treated with nitric acid.

Piet Pieterszoon Hein

After some musket volleys from Dutch sloops the crews of the galleons also surrendered and Hein captured 11,509,524 guilders of booty in gold, silver, and other expensive trade goods, such as indigo and cochineal, without any bloodshed.


Drysalter

In 1726 Daniel Defoe described a tradesman involved in the "buying of cochineal, indigo, galls, shumach, logwood, fustick, madder, and the like" as both dry-salter and salter.

Economy of India under Company rule

Another major, though erratic, export item was indigo dye, which was extracted from natural indigo, and which came to be grown in Bengal and northern Bihar.

Purple urine bag syndrome

This converts indoxyl sulfate in the urine into the red and blue colored compounds indirubin and indigo.

Saint-Domingue

The rows of freebooting grew bigger; plundering raids, like those of Vera Cruz in 1683 or of CampĂȘche in 1686, became increasingly numerous, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, elder son of Jean Baptist Colbert and at the time Minister of the Navy, brought back some order by taking a great number of measures, including the creation of plantations of indigo and of cane sugar.

Taking the piss

This was particularly the case for the dyeing items blue with indigo or more traditionally with woad, before synthetic dyes were invented or made commercially available.


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