''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
in the family
Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...
(the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from the ancient Greek word for the plant, ἰσάτις. It is occasionally known as Asp of Jerusalem. Woad is also the name of a blue
dye produced from the leaves of the plant. Woad is native to the
steppe and desert zones of the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
, Central Asia to Eastern
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
and
Western Asia but is now also found in South-Eastern and Central
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
and western
North America.
Since ancient times, woad was an important source of blue dye and was cultivated throughout Europe, especially in Western and Southern Europe. In medieval times, there were important woad-growing regions in England, Germany and France. Towns such as
Toulouse became prosperous from the woad trade. Woad was eventually replaced by the more colourfast ''
Indigofera tinctoria
''Indigofera tinctoria'', also called true indigo, is a species of plant from the bean family that was one of the original sources of indigo dye.
Description
True indigo is a shrub one to two meters high. It may be an annual plant, annual, bi ...
'' and, in the early 20th century, both woad and ''Indigofera tinctoria'' were replaced by synthetic blue dyes. Woad has been used medicinally for centuries. The double use of woad is seen in its name: the term "''Isatis''" is linked to its ancient use to treat wounds; the term "''tinctoria''" references its use as a dye. There has also been some revival of the use of woad for craft purposes.
History of woad cultivation
Ancient use
The first archaeological finds of woad seeds date to the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
period. The seeds have been found in the cave of l'Audoste,
Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and ...
, France. Impressions of seeds of ''Färberwaid'' (Isatis tinctoria L.) or German indigo, of the plant family ''Brassicaceae'', have been found on pottery in the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
settlement of
Heuneburg
The Heuneburg is a prehistoric hillfort by the river Danube in Hundersingen near Herbertingen, between Ulm and Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, in the south of Germany, close to the modern borders with Switzerland and Austria. It is considered ...
, Germany. Seed and pod fragments have also been found in an Iron Age pit at Dragonby, North Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.
The
Hallstatt burials of the
Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave
The Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave is a richly-furnished Celtic burial chamber near Hochdorf an der Enz (municipality of Eberdingen) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, dating from 530 BC in the Hallstatt culture period. It was discovered in 1968 by an ...
and
Hohmichele
The Heuneburg is a prehistoric hillfort by the river Danube in Hundersingen near Herbertingen, between Ulm and Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, in the south of Germany, close to the modern borders with Switzerland and Austria. It is considered to ...
contained textiles dyed with woad.
Melo and Rondão write that woad was known "as far back as the time of the ancient Egyptians, who used it to dye the cloth wrappings applied for the mummies." Skelton informs us that one of the early dyes discovered by the ancient Egyptians was "blue woad (Isatis tinctoria)." Lucas writes, "What has been assumed to have been Indian Indigo on ancient Egyptian fabrics may have been woad." Hall states that the ancient Egyptians created their blue dye "by using indigotin, otherwise known as woad."
A dye known as in
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
is mentioned in the Babylonian
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
.
Celtic blue is a shade of blue, also known as in
Welsh, or in both the
Irish language
Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
and in
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...
. Julius Caesar reported (in ''
Commentarii de Bello Gallico'') that the Britanni used to colour their bodies blue with , a word that means primarily "glass", but also the domestic name for the "
woad" (''Isatis tinctoria''), besides the
Gaulish loanword (from
Proto-Celtic ). The connection seems to be that both glass and the woad are "water-like" ( la, vitrum is from
Proto-Indo-European ). In terms of usage, Latin is more often used to refer to glass rather than woad.
The use of the word for the woad might also be understood as "coloured like glass", applied to the plant and the dye made from it.
Due to this and other Roman accounts of them painting (or possibly tattooing) their bodies, northern inhabitants of Britain came to be known as
Picts
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from e ...
(), meaning "painted ones" in Latin. Gillian Carr conducted experiments using indigo pigment derived from woad mixed with different binders to make body paint. The resulting paints yielded colours from "grey-blue, through intense midnight blue, to black".
People with modern experiences with woad as a tattoo pigment have claimed that it does not work well, and is actually
caustic and causes scarring when put into the skin.
It has also been claimed that Caesar was referring to some form of
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
- or
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...
-based pigment.
Analysis done on the
Lindow Man did return evidence of copper. The same study also noted that the earliest definite reference to the woad plant in the British Isles dates to a seed impression on an Anglo-Saxon pot. The authors theorize that vitrum could have actually referred to
copper(II) sulfate's naturally occurring variant
chalcanthite or to the mineral
azurite. A later study concluded the amount was "not of sufficient magnitude to provide convincing evidence that the copper was deliberately applied as paint".
Woad was an important dyeing agent in much of Europe and parts of England during the medieval period. However, dye traders began to import
indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which threatened to replace locally grown woad as the primary blue dye.
The translation of vitrum as woad may date to this period.
Medieval period onwards
Woad was one of the three staples of the European dyeing industry, along with
weld (yellow) and
madder (red).
Chaucer mentions their use by the dyer ("litestere") in his poem ''The Former Age'':
:::No mader, welde, or wood no litestere
:::Ne knew; the flees was of his former hewe;
The three colours can be seen together in tapestries such as ''
The Hunt of the Unicorn'' (1495–1505), though typically it is the dark blue of the woad that has lasted best. 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.
In
Viking Age levels at archaeological digs at
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, a dye shop with remains of both woad and
madder have been excavated and dated to the 10th century. In medieval times, centres of woad cultivation lay in
Lincolnshire and
Somerset in England,
Jülich and the
Erfurt area in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and lar ...
in Germany,
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
and
Tuscany
it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Citizenship
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 = Italian
, demogra ...
in Italy, and
Gascogne,
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, the
Somme Basin (from
Amiens to
Saint-Quentin),
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
and, above all,
Languedoc in France. This last region, in the triangle created by
Toulouse,
Albi, and
Carcassonne known as the
Lauragais, was for a long time the most productive of woad, or "pastel" as it was known there, one writer commenting that "woad
��hath made that country the happiest and richest in Europe."
The prosperous woad merchants of
Toulouse displayed their affluence in splendid mansions, many of which still stand, as the
Hôtel de Bernuy and the
Hôtel d'Assézat. One merchant, Jean de Bernuy, a Spanish Jew who had fled the
inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
, was credit-worthy enough to be the main guarantor of the ransomed King
Francis I after his capture at the
Battle of Pavia
The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–1526 between the Kingdom of France and the Habsburg empire of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as well as ruler of Spain, ...
by
Charles V of Spain.
Much of the woad produced here was used for the cloth industry in southern France, but it was also exported via
Bayonne,
Narbonne
Narbonne (, also , ; oc, Narbona ; la, Narbo ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the ...
and
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
to Flanders, the Low Countries, Italy, and above all Britain and Spain.
After cropping the woad eddish could be let out for grazing sheep.
The woad produced in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire in the 19th century was shipped out from the
Port of Wisbech,
Spalding and
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, both the last to northern mills and the USA. The last portable woad mill was at
Parson Drove, Cambridgeshire,
Wisbech & Fenland Museum has a woad mill model, photos and other items used in woad production.
A major market for woad was at
Görlitz in Lausitz. The citizens of the five Thuringian ''Färberwaid'' (dye woad) towns of
Erfurt,
Gotha
Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...
,
Tennstedt,
Arnstadt and
Langensalza had their own charters. In Erfurt, the woad-traders gave the funds to found the
University of Erfurt
The University of Erfurt (german: Universität Erfurt) is a public university located in Erfurt, the capital city of the German state of Thuringia. It was founded in 1379, and closed in 1816. It was re-established in 1994, three years after Germ ...
. Traditional fabric is still printed with woad in Thuringia,
Saxony and
Lusatia today: it is known as ''Blaudruck'' (literally, "blue print(ing)").
Use as Chinese medicine
The woad plant's roots are used in
Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of acti ...
to make a medicine known as ''banlangen'' ( ) that purports to have antiviral properties. ''Banlangen'' is used as an herbal medicinal tea in China for colds and tonsular ailments. Used as a tea, it has a brownish appearance and (unlike most Chinese medicines) is mildly sweet in taste.
Woad and indigo
The dye chemical extracted from woad is
indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
, the same dye extracted from "true indigo", ''
Indigofera tinctoria
''Indigofera tinctoria'', also called true indigo, is a species of plant from the bean family that was one of the original sources of indigo dye.
Description
True indigo is a shrub one to two meters high. It may be an annual plant, annual, bi ...
'', but in a lower concentration. Following the
Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India
The Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India was the first recorded trip directly from Europe to the Indian subcontinent, via the Cape of Good Hope. Under the command of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, it was undertaken during the rei ...
by the navigator
Vasco da Gama in 1498, great amounts of indigo were imported from Asia. Laws were passed in some parts of Europe to protect the woad industry from the competition of the indigo trade. It was proclaimed that indigo caused yarns to rot: "In 1577 the German government officially prohibited the use of indigo, denouncing it as that pernicious, deceitful and corrosive substance, the Devil's dye." This prohibition was repeated in 1594 and again in 1603. In France,
Henry IV, in an edict of 1609, forbade under pain of death the use of "the false and pernicious Indian drug".
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 20th century. The last commercial harvest of woad until recent times occurred in 1932, in
Lincolnshire, Britain. Small amounts of woad are now grown in the UK and France to supply craft dyers. The classic book about woad is ''The Woad Plant and its Dye'' by J. B. Hurry, Oxford University Press of 1930, which contains an extensive bibliography.
A method for producing blue dye from woad is described in ''The History of Woad and the Medieval Woad Vat'' (1998) . In France, woad was treated with human urine, by a profession known as pisseurs, who would drink large quantities of beer to provide a sufficient supply.
Woad is biodegradable and safe in the environment. In Germany, there have been attempts to use it to protect wood against decay without applying dangerous chemicals. Production of woad is increasing in the UK for use in
inks, particularly for
inkjet printer
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensi ...
s, and dyes. The plant can cause problems, however: ''Isatis tinctoria'' is classified as an
invasive species in parts of the United States.
Invasive and noxious weed
In certain locations, the plant is classified as a non-native and invasive weed. It is listed as a
noxious weed by the agriculture departments of several states in the western United States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. In Montana, it has been the target of an extensive, and largely successful, eradication attempt.
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
External links
Woad.org.uk - All About Woad - Cultivation, Extraction, Dyeing with Woad, History and facts about woadRex Wailes in Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 1935-36 Vol 16.
USDA information on ''Isatis tinctoria''
{{Authority control
Brassicaceae
Flora of Western Asia
Flora of Siberia
Medicinal plants of Asia
Plant dyes
Medicinal plants of Europe
Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus