Cochineal
Cochineal is a crimson dye made from dried scale insects that live on prickly-pear cacti, native to the Americas.
Cochineal comes from the bodies of female Dactylopius coccus insects, collected from cacti and dried. Long cultivated in Mexico and the Andes, it reached Europe through Spanish trade in the sixteenth century and became one of the most valuable dyes for silk and wool.
What colours does it give?
With different mordants, crimsons, scarlets and purples. It is still used today, as carmine, to colour food and cosmetics.
Sources
- Cochineal (AAT 300013597). Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Cochineal (Q66779998). Wikidata
See also
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