From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Woad" redirects here. For the American radio
station, see
WOAD (AM).
For 'Woads' as a fictional name for a tribe
[1], see
Picts.
Woad (or glastum) is the
common name of the flowering plant Isatis
tinctoria in the family Brassicaceae. It is commonly called dyer's
woad, and sometimes incorrectly listed as Isatis
indigotica (a newer and invalid name for the same
plant). It is occasionally known as Asp of Jerusalem. Woad is also
the name of a blue dye produced from the plant. Woad is pronounced
/ˈwoʊd/, to rhyme with road.
Woad is native to the steppe and desert zones of the Caucasus, Central Asia to
eastern Siberia and Western
Asia (Hegi), but is now found in southeastern and some parts of
Central Europe as well. It has
been cultivated throughout Europe, especially in Western and
southern Europe, since ancient times.
History of woad
cultivation
The first archaeological finds of woad seeds date to the Neolithic and have been
found in the French cave of l'Audoste, Bouches du Rhone (France).
Named Färberwaid (Isatis tinctoria L.) or German Indigo of
the plant family (Brassicaceae), in the Iron Age settlement of the Heuneburg, Germany,
impressions of the seeds have been found on pottery. The Hallstatt burials of Hochdorf and Hohmichele contained textiles dyed with
Färberwaid (dye woad).
Julius Caesar
tells us (in De Bello Gallico)
that the Britanni used to colour their bodies blue with
vitrum, a word that roughly translates to "glass". While
many have assumed vitrum or vitro refers to woad,
and this misconception was probably repeated for political
reasons,[2]
it is probable that Caesar was describing some form of copper- or
iron-based pigment.[2]
The northern inhabitants of Britain came to be known as Picts (Picti), which means "painted
ones" in Latin, due to these accounts of them painting or tattooing
their bodies.
In Viking age levels at York, a dye shop with remains of both woad and madder dating
from the tenth century have been excavated. In Medieval times,
centres of woad–cultivation lay in Lincolnshire and Somerset in England, Gascogne, Normandy, the Somme Basin (from Amiens to Saint-Quentin), Toulouse and Britany in
France, Jülich, the Erfurt area in Thuringia in Germany and Piedmont and Tuscany in Italy. A major market for woad was
at Görlitz in
Silesia.[3] The
citizens of the five Thuringian Färberwaid (dye woad) towns of
Erfurt, Gotha, Tennstedt, Arnstadt and Langensalza had their
own charters. In Erfurt, the woad-traders gave the funds to found
the University of Erfurt. Traditional
fabric is still printed with woad in Thuringia, Saxony and Lusatia today: it is known as
Blaudruck (literally, 'blue print(ing)').
Medieval uses of the dye were not limited to textiles. For
example, the illustrator of the Lindisfarne Gospels used a
woad-based pigment for blue paint.
Woad and
indigo
Woad plants in their first year
|
Indigo Dye |
|
— Color coordinates — |
| Hex triplet |
#00416A |
| RGBB |
(r, g, b) |
(0, 65, 106) |
| HSV |
(h, s, v) |
(203°, 100%, 42%) |
|
Source |
ISCC-NBS |
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
|
|
|
The dye chemical extracted from woad is indigo, the same dye extracted from "true
indigo", Indigofera tinctoria, but in
a lower concentration. With the European discovery of the seaway to
India, great amounts of indigo were imported. Laws were passed in
some parts of Europe to protect the woad industry from the
competition of the indigo trade. Indigo was proclaimed to rot the
yarns as well. "In 1577 the German government officially prohibited
the use of indigo, denouncing it as that pernicious, deceitful and
corrosive substance, the Devil's dye." [4] "... a
recess of the Diet held in 1577 prohibited the use of 'the
newly-invented, deceitful, eating and corrosive dye called the
devil's dye.' This prohibition was repeated in 1594 and again in
1603."[5] With
the development of a chemical process to synthesize the pigment,
both the woad and natural indigo industries collapsed in the first
years of the twentieth century. The last commercial harvest of woad
until recent times occurred in 1932, in Lincolnshire, Britain. Small amounts of woad are now
grown in UK and France to supply craft dyers.[6] The
classic book about woad is "The Woad Plant and its Dye" by J B
Hurry, Oxford University Press, 1930, which contains an extensive
bibliography.[7]
In Germany, there are attempts to use woad to protect wood
against decay without dangerous chemicals. Production is also
increasing again in the UK for use in inks, particularly for inkjet printers, and dyes, as woad is
biodegradable and safe in the environment, unlike many synthetic
inks. Isatis tinctoria is viewed as an invasive
species in parts of the United States.
Woad and
health
Chemicals from woad might be used to prevent cancer, as it can
produce high levels of glucobrassicin[8][9].
Young leaves when damaged can produce more glucobrassicin, up to 65
times as much.[10]
Indigowoad Root (Chinese: 板藍根; pinyin: bǎn lán gēn) is a traditional Chinese
medicine herb that comes from the roots of woad, but often
incorrectly listed under the synonymic name, Isatis
indigotica. It is also known as Radix isatidis. The
herb is cultivated in various regions of northern China, namely Hebei, Beijing, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jiangsu, and Gansu. The roots are harvested during the autumn
and dried. The dried root is then processed into granules, which
are most commonly consumed dissolved in hot water or tea. The product, called Banlangen Keli, is very
popular throughout China, and used to remove toxic heat, soothe sore
throat and to treat influenza, measles, mumps, syphilis, or scarlet fever. It is also used for pharyngitis, laryngitis, erysipelas, and carbuncle, and to prevent hepatitis A,
epidemic meningitis, cancer
and inflammation.
Possible minor side effects include allergic reactions and
dizziness; only large dosages or long term usage can be toxic to
the kidneys. These treatments have not generally been evaluated
clinically.
Invasive and noxious
weed
In certain locations the plant is classified as non-native and
invasive weed. It is listed as a noxious weed by the agriculture
departments of several states in the western United States.[11][12] In
Montana, it has been the target of an extensive, and largely
successful, eradication attempt. [13]
References
- ^
King Arthur movie
mistakes
- ^ a
b
The Problem of the
Woad
- ^
Werner Sombart, Der Moderne Kapitalismus (15ty ed.) 1928,
vol I, p. 231.
- ^
Lippincott's Magazine of
Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 100, April,
1876.
- ^ D
G Schreber, Historische, physische und economische Beschreibung
des Waidtes, 1752, the appendix; Thorpe JF and Ingold CK,
1923, Synthetic colouring matters - vat colours (London:
Longmans, Green), p. 23
- ^
[1]
- ^
[2]
- ^
Galletti, Stefania; Barillari,
Jessica; Iori, Renato; Venturi, Gianpietro (14 August 2006). "Glucobrassicin enhancement
in woad (Isatis tinctoria) leaves by chemical and physical
treatments". Journal of the Science of Food and
Agriculture (Wiley) 86 (12): 1833-1836. doi:10.1002/jsfa.2571. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112730122/abstract.
- ^ "War paint plant 'tackles
cancer'". BBC online, 13 August 2006. Accessed 2007-06-02
- ^ "Celts' warpaint may be weapon
to beat cancer". The Telegraph,14 August 2006. Accessed
2007-06-02
- ^
"PLANTS Profile for Isatis
tinctoria (Dyer's woad)". http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ISTI. Retrieved November 24
2009.
- ^
"Prohibited, Regulated and
Restricted Noxious Weeds". http://www.azda.gov/PSD/quarantine5.htm. Retrieved November 24
2009.
- ^
Monica L. Pokorny and Jane M.
Krueger-Mangold. "Evaluating Montana’s Dyer’s
Woad (Isatis tinctoria) Cooperative Eradication
Project". Weed Technology 2007 21:262–269. http://www.weedcenter.org/inv_plant_info/docs/MT-Dyers_woad.pdf.
External
links
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