Quercitron is a

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

natural dye Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources—roots, berry, berries, Bark (botany), bark, leaf, leaves, and wood—and other biological sourc ...

obtained from the bark of the Eastern Black Oak (''Quercus velutina''), a forest

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

indigenous in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. It was formerly called Dutch pink, English pink, or Italian pink. The name is a shortened form of quercicitron, from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''quercus'', oak, and ''citron'', lemon, and was invented by Edward Bancroft (1744–1821), who by act of Parliament (

25 Geo. 3 This is a complete list of acts of the Parliament of Great Britain for the year 1785. For acts passed until 1707, see the list of acts of the Parliament of England and the list of acts of the Parliament of Scotland. See also the list of acts o ...

. c. 38) in 1785 was granted special privileges in regard to the importation and use of the substance. The dyestuff is prepared by grinding the bark in

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * Factory * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Paper mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * Sugarcane mill * Textile mill * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic ...

s after it has been freed from its black epidermal layer, and sifting the product to separate the fibrous matter, the fine yellow powder which remains forming the quercitron of commerce. The ruddy-orange

decoction Decoction is a method of extraction by boiling herbal or plant material (which may include stems, roots, bark and rhizomes) to dissolve the chemicals of the material. It is the most common preparation method in various herbal medicine systems. D ...

of quercitron contains

quercitannic acid Quercitannic acid is one of the two forms of tannic acid found in oak bark and leaves. The other form is called gallotannic acid and is found in oak galls. The quercitannic acid molecule is also present in quercitron, a yellow dye obtained from t ...

, whence its use in tanning, and an active dyeing principle,

quercitrin Quercitrin is a glycoside formed from the flavonoid quercetin and the deoxy sugar rhamnose. Austrian chemist Heinrich Hlasiwetz (1825-1875) is remembered for his chemical analysis of quercitrin. It has also been investigated as a potential d ...

, C₂₁H₂₀O₁₁. The latter substance is a

glycoside In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. ...

, and in aqueous solution under the influence of mineral acids it yields

quercetin Quercetin is a plant flavonol from the flavonoid group of polyphenols. It is found in many fruits, vegetables, leaves, seeds, and grains; capers, red onions, and kale are common foods containing appreciable amounts of it. It has a bitter flavor ...

, C₁₅H₁₀O₇, which is precipitated, and the methyl-

pentose In chemistry, a pentose is a monosaccharide (simple sugar) with five carbon atoms. The chemical formula of many pentoses is , and their molecular weight is 150.13 g/mol.rhamnose Rhamnose (Rha, Rham) is a naturally occurring deoxy sugar. It can be classified as either a methyl- pentose or a 6-deoxy- hexose. Rhamnose predominantly occurs in nature in its L-form as L-rhamnose (6-deoxy-L- mannose). This is unusual, since mo ...

. Quercetin is a crystalline powder of a brilliant citron yellow color, entirely insoluble in cold water and dissolving only sparingly in hot water, but quite soluble in alcohol. Either by itself or in some form of its glucoside quercitrin, quercetin is found in several vegetable substances, among others in cutch, in Persian berries (''

Rhamnus cathartica ''Rhamnus cathartica'', the European buckthorn, common buckthorn, purging buckthorn, or just buckthorn, is a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Rhamnaceae. It is native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia, from the cent ...

''),

buckwheat Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum'') or common buckwheat is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. Buckwheat originated around the 6th millennium BCE in the region of what ...

leaves (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), Zante fustic wood ('' Rhus cotinus''), and in rose petals. Chemically, quercetin is a member of a fairly extensive class of natural coloring matters derived from phenyl benzoyl-pyrone or

flavone Flavone is an organic compound with the formula . A white solid, flavone is a derivative of chromone with a phenyl (Ph) substituent adjacent to the ether group. The compound is of little direct practical importance, but substituted derivatives, ...

, the constitution of which followed on the researches of

Stanisław Kostanecki Stanisław Kostanecki (born 16 April 1860 in Myszaków, now in Poland then Kingdom of Prussia – 15 November 1910 in Würzburg) was a Polish organic chemist, professor who pioneered in vegetable dye chemistry e.g. curcumin Curcumin is a ...

, A. G. Perkin, Herzig,

Goldschmidt Goldschmidt is a German surname meaning "Goldsmith". Notable people with the surname include: * Adalbert von Goldschmidt (1848–1906), composer * Adolph Goldschmidt (1863–1944), art historian * Adolphe Goldschmidt (1838–1918), German-Britis ...

and others. Among the related, coloring matters are:

chrysin Chrysin, also called 5,7-dihydroxyflavone, is a flavone found in honey, propolis, the passion flowers, '' Passiflora caerulea'' and ''Passiflora incarnata'', and in '' Oroxylum indicum''. It is extracted from various plants, such as the blue passi ...

from poplar buds,

apigenin Apigenin (4′,5,7-trihydroxyflavone), found in many plants, is a flavone compound that is the aglycone of several naturally occurring glycosides. It is a yellow crystalline solid that has been used to dye wool. Apigenin is abundant in parsl ...

from

parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...

luteolin Luteolin is a flavone, a type of flavonoid, with a yellow crystalline appearance. Luteolin is the main yellow dye from the '' Reseda luteola'' plant, used for dyeing since at least the first millennium B.C. Luteolin was first isolated in pure f ...

from weld, mignonette and dyer's broom,

fisetin Fisetin (7,3′,4′- flavon-3-ol) is a plant flavonol from the flavonoid group of polyphenols. It occurs in many plants where it serves as a yellow pigment A pigment is a powder used to add or alter color or change visual appearance. Pig ...

from young fustic and yellow cypress,

galangin Galangin is a flavonol, a type of flavonoid. Occurrence Galangin is found in high concentrations in plants like '' Alpinia officinarum'' (lesser galangal) and '' Helichrysum aureonitens''. It is also found in the rhizome of '' Alpinia galanga'' ...

from

galangal Galangal () is a rhizome of plants in the ginger family Zingiberaceae, with culinary and medicinal uses originating in Indonesia. It is one of four species in the genus ''Alpinia'', and is known for its pungent, aromatic flavor. Greater gal ...

root, and

myricetin Myricetin is a member of the flavonoid class of polyphenolic compounds, with antioxidant properties. Common dietary sources include vegetables (including tomatoes), fruits (including oranges), nuts, berries, tea, and red wine. Myricetin is stru ...

from ''Nageia nagi''. In

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

in the late 1840s and early 1850s, according to the historian Philip Dillon Jordan:

References

{{Glycosides Flavonoid glycosides Plant dyes