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Description

Alizarin was the first pigment synthetically made, and it was done by the first organic chemists who managed to isolate one of two color agents in the Madder plant. Madder had been used for thousands of years, and is still used, as an organic red dye with a beautiful range- a lot of the dye industry's historic secrets have centered around techniques for creating a predictable shade from many variants possible with the same plant.
Alizarin was isolated from its sister-compound, Purpurin, and since the former is lightfast, Synthetic Alizarin became extremely popular and ushered in countless more synthetics that were cheaper to produce than the more fickle plant and insect farms that red pigment had been relying on.

Description

Alizarin was the first pigment synthetically made, and it was done by the first organic chemists who managed to isolate one of two color agents in the Madder plant. Madder had been used for thousands of years, and is still used, as an organic red dye with a beautiful range- a lot of the dye industry's historic secrets have centered around techniques for creating a predictable shade from many variants possible with the same plant.
Alizarin was isolated from its sister-compound, Purpurin, and since the former is lightfast, Synthetic Alizarin became extremely popular and ushered in countless more synthetics that were cheaper to produce than the more fickle plant and insect farms that red pigment had been relying on.