CARTHAMUS TiNCTORIUS. Safflower.
Crocus Indicus, Bumph.
Usfar, ARAB. Kamalottara, . . SANSK.
Kajireh, . . . BEND. Kusumbha, . . • ,, I isoo, BURN. Sendurkum, . . TAM. Kortom, . . . EGYPT. Agnisikha, . . . . TEL. Bastard saffron, . ENG. Kusumba chettu,. „ Kusum, . . . . 1inm.
The safflower is grown very abundantly all over India, Burma, and China, and is very largely used in dyeing. The plant is pro pagated by seed sown in drills at lf feet distance from each other. The young plants appear in about a month, and after the second month are hoed and thinned, each plant being left a foot from the other. Tho richer the land, the larger the proportion of colouring matter afforded by the flower. On the opening of the flowerets, they are rapidly gathered without being allowed to expand fully. They are then dried in the shade with great care. The produce of Pater ghauta and Belispore is considered, in the London market, as the best that is exported from India. The Dacca safflower ranks next to that of China, which is reputed to be of a superior quality. Safflower is widely grown on the banks of tho Irawadi and Salwin. Its flowers furnish the best yellow dye in the country, and, mixed with other ingredients, they are used to dye red, and to give a variety of tints, and in dyeing pink and scarlet.
This plant yields six or seven distinct shades of red, the palest pink or piyazi gulabi (pink), gulabi surkh (rose colour), kulfi or gul-i-shaftalu (deep-red). In combination with harsinghar flowers (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis), it yields soneri or golden orange, narangi, deep orange, and sharbati, salmon-colour ; and with turmeric (haldi, zard ehob), it gives a splendid scarlet, gul-i-anar, and other tints ; again, if combined with indigo, Prussian blue, etc. a series of beautiful purples, known as lajwardi, uda, nafarmani, sosani, kasni (a delicate mauve), falsai, kokai, and the deep purple bainoni. All these tints are more or less beautiful, but scarcely one of them will stand washing.
The yellow principle is worthless as a dye. It is soluble in water, is removed by washing, and thrown away as the first step in the preparation of the valuable red product. The red dye is an
acid resinous substance of superb colour, insoluble in water and in acid solutions, little soluble in alcohol, and not at all in ether. It is dissolved freely. by aqueous alkaline solutions, which it neutralizes. Its salts (carthamates) are crystaliz able, and quite colourless ; acids precipitate the earthamic acids from solutions of these salts. To obtain it on a large scale, after the separation of the yellow matter, the dried flowers are treated by a solution of carbonate of soda, and lemon juice added ; the carthamic acid precipitate is collected by subsidence, washed, and carefully dried at a gentle heat. The most lovely tints are imparted by this dye to silk and cotton ; rouge is a mixture of the dry carthamic acid and finely powdered talc. The pink saucers used for giving a flesh tint to silk are prepared from this dye, with a small portion of soda. 8 oz. of the prepared petals and 2 oz. carbonate of soda are acted on by 2 gallons of water. 4 lbs. of prepared chalk are added, and the colour precipitated upon this by citric or tartaric acid. The Chinese card-rouge is a carthamate of soda, colourless when rubbed on, but by the salt being decomposed by the acetic acid secreted by the skin itself, the carthamic acid separates in the most perfect rosy tint which can be imagined. The seeds yield abundance of fixed oil, which is used as an external application in paralytic affections, and for bad ulcers ; and small seeds are reckoned by the Vytians amongst their laxative medicines. The 'dye of the Kong-wha,' a variety of safflower or Carthamus tinctorius which grows in China, is held in high esteem by the Chinese, and is used in dying the red and scarlet silks and crapes which are so common in the country, and so much and justly admired by foreigners of every nation. Large quantities are annually produced in the Chekiang province near Ningpo.—PowelPs Handbook, i. p. 457 ; Ains. Mat. Ind. p. 195 ; O'Shaughnessy, p. 411 ; Drs. Mason, M'Clelland.