Indigofera tinctoria Health effects and herbal facts
Indigofera tinctoria bears the common name true indigo. The plant was one of the original sources of indigo dye. It has been naturalized to tropical and temperate Asia, as well as parts of Africa, but its native habitat is unknown since it has been in cultivation worldwide for many centuries. Today most dye is synthetic, but natural dye from I. tinctoria is still available, marketed as natural coloring. The plant is also widely grown as a soil-improving groundcover. True indigo is a shrub one to two meters high. It may be an annual, biennial, or perennial, depending on the climate in which it is grown. It has light green pinnate leaves and sheafs of pink or violet flowers. The plant is a legume, so it is rotated into fields to improve the soil in the same way that other legume crops such as alfalfa and beans are. Dye is obtained from the processing of the plant's leaves. They are soaked in water and fermented in order to convert the glycoside indican naturally present in the plant to the blue dye indigotin.
Medical use
Economic importance of Indigofera tinctoria
| Environmental | soil improver |
|---|---|
| Materials | tanin/dyestuf |
| Medicines | folklore |
Gallery
Geografical distribution
- AFRICA
Native
- Macaronesia: Cape Verde
- Northeast Tropical Africa: Chad; Ethiopia; Somalia; Sudan; Yemen - Socotra
- East Tropical Africa: Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda
- West-Central Tropical Africa: Cameroon; Central African Republic; Gabon; Sao Tome and Principe
- West Tropical Africa: Benin; Cote D'Ivoire; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal; Togo
- South Tropical Africa: Angola; Malawi; Mozambique; Zambia; Zimbabwe
- Southern Africa: Botswana
- Western Indian Ocean: Madagascar
- ASIA-TEMPERATE
Native
- Arabian Peninsula: Yemen
- China: China - Anhui, Hainan
- Eastern Asia: Taiwan
Biological activities
| Antiseptic |
Indigotin
found in Plant
|
| Astringent |
Indigotin
found in Plant
|
| Carcinogenic |
Indican
found in Plant
|
| Pesticide |
Indigotin
found in Plant
|