![]() ![]() The higher the gpL, the darker the vat will be. Grams per Liter (gpL): An expression used to determine the amount of indigo in a vat. An excellent resource about the history of indigo is Jenny Balfour-Paul’s book Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans. Cultivation acreage plummeted and within 20 years only a fraction of the indigo used worldwide was from natural sources. The color was synthesized around 1880 by Alfred Bayer and shortly after the world indigo market collapsed as manufacturers switched to the new miracle synthetic dye. European colonizers forced Bengali and indigenous workers to grow indigo under horrible conditions, resulting in worker uprisings and revolts. Indigo was a valued historical crop and grown and tended by enslaved people in the US. Indigo was used to dye shrouds for Egyptian burials, uniforms for Napoleon’s Army, prestige cloth for African chiefs and to dye denim for blue jeans. It is the only natural plant-based blue and its colorant is present in other plants, including woad ( Isatis tinctoria), Japanese indigo, ( Persicaria tinctoria, a buckwheat) and Strobilanthes cusia, a distant cousin to the ornamental Persian Shield that you can buy at Home Depot. It can be taken internally as a mouthwash or used externally as an ointment.Indigo: Indigo is a pigment from the leaves of the indigo plant called Indigofera tinctoria, one of the oldest dyes known to humankind. ![]() Tincture: Take 1 ml of the tincture three times a day. Tea: Put 1/2-1 teaspoonful of the dried root in a cup of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. It has also been used to heal skin ulcers and ease sore nipples as an external application. There has been some use of wild indigo as a systemic treatment for enlarged and inflamed lymph glands and also to reduce fevers. It can help to heal ulcers in the mouth, gingivitis, and help in the control of pyorrhea. If it is a lymphatic problem, then typically it will be combined with a cleaver and poke root. When wild indigo is used for the treatment of infections it will commonly be used in conjunction with echinacea and myrrh. It can be helpful as a treatment for laryngitis, tonsillitis, pharyngitis and catarrhal infections of the nasal and sinus passages. It has also been found to be of use in the treatment of infections of the ear, nose and throat. More recently and in part due to research which has shown that it can stimulate the immune system, it has been applied as an herbal remedy in the treatment of common colds, sore throats, infections and influenza. ![]() The root contains alkaloids, which may contribute to its medicinal actions. Instead it is used in conjunction with other herbs, such as echinacea and thuja in the treatments of colds and flu. Historically, the root of wild indigo was used by European herbalists to treat ulcers and several types of infections, including those affecting the mouth and gums, lymph nodes, and throat. Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria) – Illustration ©The Herbal Resource It is not uncommon to see bunches of it being fastened to the harness for this purpose. Wild indigo is frequently used by farmers, especially in Virginia and Maryland, to keep flies away from horses. The seed pods form on stalks longer than the calyx and are nearly globular or ovoid and are tipped with an awl-shaped style. The plant belongs to the same family as the common clover, the pea family (Fabaceae). The flowers are yellow and appear in numerous clusters. Plant Description: Wild indigo is a perennial plant that grows about 2 to 3 feet in height and grows a 3-leaved, bluish-green clover-like leaves. Habitat: Wild indigo grows mainly along the Eastern Side of the United States – from Maine to Minnesota and all the way south to Florida, but typically no further than southeast of Louisiana. Other Common Names: Broom-clover, Baptisia, indigo-weed, horsefly-weed, indigo-broom, shoofly, yellow indigo, American indigo, yellow broom, cloverbroom, rattlebush. Botanical Name of Wild Indigo: Baptisia tinctoria. ![]()
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