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MADDER

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 280 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MADDER , or DYERS' MADDER, the See also:

root of Rubia tinctorum and perhaps also of R. peregrina, both See also:European, R. cordifolia, a native of the hilly districts of See also:India and of See also:north-See also:east See also:Asia and See also:Java, supplying the See also:Indian madder or manjit. Rubia is a genus of about See also:thirty-five See also:species of the tribe Galieae of the See also:order See also:Rubiaceae, and much resembles the See also:familiar Galiums, e.g. See also:lady's bedstraw (G. verum) and the See also:cleavers (G. aparine) of See also:English hedges, having similarly whorled leaves, but the parts of the See also:flowers are in See also:fives and not fours, while the See also:fruit is somewhat fleshy. The only See also:British species is R. peregrina, which is found in See also:Wales, the See also:south and See also:west of See also:England, and in east and south See also:Ireland. The use of madder appears to have been known from the earliest times, as See also:cloth dyed with it has been found on the See also:Egyptian mummies. It was the pevOi6avov used for See also:dyeing the cloaks of the Libyan See also:women in the days of See also:Herodotus (See also:Herod. iv. 189). It is the ipvUpo3avov of Dioscorides, who speaks of its cultivation in See also:Caria (iii. 16o), and of See also:Hippocrates (De morb. mul. i.), and the Rubia of See also:Pliny (xix. 17). R. tinctorum, a native of western See also:Europe, &c., has been extensively cultivated in south Europe, See also:France, where it is called garance, and See also:Holland, and to a small extent in the See also:United States. Large quantities have been imported into England from See also:Smyrna, See also:Trieste, See also:Leghorn, &c. The cultivation, however, decreased after See also:alizarin, the red colouring principle of madder, was made artificially.

Madder was employed medicinally by the ancients and in the See also:

middle ages. See also:Gerard, in 1597, speaks of it as having been cultivated in many gardens in his See also:day, and describes its supposed many virtues (Herball, P.96o) ; but any pharmacological or therapeutic See also:action which madder may possess is unrecognizable. Its most remarkable physiological effect is that of colouring red the bones of animals fed upon it, as also the claws and beaks of birds. This appears to be due to the chemical See also:affinity of phosphate of See also:lime for the colouring See also:matter (Pereira, See also:Mat. med., vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 52). This See also:property has been of much use in enabling physiologists to ascertain themanner in which bones develop, and the functions of the various types of cells found in growing See also:bone. R. chilensis has been used for dyeing red from See also:time immemorial. The chay-root, which furnishes a red dye in Coromandel and other parts of India, is the root-bark of Oldenlandia umbellata, a See also:low-growing plant of the same See also:family as madder.

End of Article: MADDER

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