Indian Yellow (Pigment and Legend)
- Indian yellow is bright, and pops off the page because it fluoresces, much like DaGlo colors.
- The raw product was imported from India and China since the 1500's.
- It is a transparent colorant, and provided highlights in Dutch paintings and bright borders to miniature manuscripts.
- Curiously, Indian yellow slows drying time for oil paintings.
Structure
- Euxanthone (yellow structure) gives the color.
- This is a fluorone (or xanthone) class dye - a dye commonly found in food.
- Mangiferin is the bright fluorescent orange-yellow color of mango fruit. It is a C-linked glucoside, and so is not digested enzymatically.
- Erythrosine is FDA red dye #3, and was also used early in photography to make film respond to long wavelengths of light - i.e. the reds.
- Fluorones are also a fabulously useful group of dyes in medicine and in biomedical research.
- Mercurichrome has long been used as an antibacterial topical treatment.
- Eosin is a histological stain for positively charged molecules, such as proteins in the cytoplasm and histamine in white blood cells.
- Fluorescein and Rose bengal stain corneal abrasions and are in common ophthalmological use today.
- Fluo-3, Fluo-4, SNARF and CFDA-SE measure pH, calcium and viability of individual cells.
- Anthraquinone dyes have a similar 3-ring structure, but have a carbon where fluorone dyes have the (top center) oxygen.
- Carminic acid is the red of cochineal.
- Alizarin is the red of madder.
- This is a fluorone (or xanthone) class dye - a dye commonly found in food.
- Glucuronic acid (blue structure) is the sugar conjugated to euxanthone.
- These conjugated sugars increase the water solubility of these classes of dye molecules.
- Plants add sugars to allow them to temporarily store signalling molecules in an inactive form - for use later as needed.
- Animals conjugate a wide variety of molecules to aid in their disposal by the kidney.
Readings
- Feller, Robert L., ed. (1986) Artists Pigments : a Handbook of their History and Characteristics, Vol. 1, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Finlay, Victoria (2003). Color: A Natural History of the Palette. Random House. ISBN 0812971426. (Kindle Edition $9.35)
- Myers, David. (2011) The Art Blog of David Myers: Indian Yellow. http://toxicgraphix.blogspot.com/2011/02/indian-yellow.html.
- Stenhouse, John (November 1844). Examination of a yellow substance from India called Purree, from which the pigment called Indian Yellow is manufactured, The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science: 321–325.
- Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_yellow.
- Agroforestry.org, (2005) Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry
- Church, Arthur Herbert (1901 ) The Chemistry of Paints and Painting, Published by Seeley (see my Free Art Books Page)
- Eastaugh, Nicholas (2004). Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0750657499.
- Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 2006,Vol.5, Iss.10,Pgs 800-804, Feeding Value of Mango Leaf (Mangifera indica) for Growing Rabbits *
- mdidea.com, 2011, Uses of Mango Leaves,Seeds and Bark'
- Merimee, M.J.F.L. (8/5/2009). The Art of Painting in Oil and Fresco. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 9781437141160.
- Stenhouse (Kindle Edition 99 cents), also see my Free Art Books Page *
- Watts, Leopold Gmelin, Henry, 1866 Hand-book of chemistry, Volume 17 pg.530
- Weber, F.W. Artists' Pigments: Their Chemical and Physical Properties. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1923.
These blogs were inspired by a 2017 show at the Indianapolis Museum of Art called CSI: Chemistry of Color.