Rubia tinctorum, a perennial plant from the Bedstraw family, is related to our native Cleaver. The red carrot has been used everywhere as a dye since time immemorial. The name Rubia comes from the Latin ‘ruber’ red, and krap from ‘Krapso’, hooks because the stems and leaves have small hooked spines. The Meekrap was already cultivated and used by the ancient Persians and in the Indies, but later especially by the Turks. The root was known as Turkish red. Both the typical head covering Fez and carpets were colored with Madder. One of the oldest known examples of textiles dyed with madder root is a belt found in the tomb of Tutankhamun (1350 BC). The Greek physician Dioskorides also describes cultivation in olive groves, among other things. His contemporary Pliny mentions that the culture of Rubia is profitable and cultivated in almost all provinces. It is not only known from texts that the plant was widely used. Traces of the stable red dye alizarin can also be found archaeologically. For example, in Qumran on the Dead Sea, approximately 2,000 year old skeletons were found with strikingly red colored bones. Analysis showed that this was due to deposition of alizarin. Apparently these people had madder on the menu. Extracts from the root are also still drunk in Arab countries. This would protect them from the evil eye.
Red dye back in Europe
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the knowledge of dyeing with madder was lost. This painting technique was only used in the Byzantine Empire and the Far East. During the unrest in the years 600 to 900 AD, many dyers wandered towards Italy. From Italy, the Meekrap, together with the dyers, then ended up in France, Germany and even England. The Madder appears under the Frankish name ,Warentia, on the list of the Capitulare de villis, utility plants that were grown on the lands of Charlemagne.
In 1826, the French chemist Pierre-Jean Robiquet discovered that madder roots contain two dyes: the red alizarin and the rapidly bleaching purpurine. In the 2nd half of the 18th century, a famous culture arose near Avignon with dye-rich varieties Palud and Paludalizari. From 1815 onwards, soldiers’ trousers in France were even dyed with Madder, possibly to support the dye industry. Around 1865, world production amounted to about 70,000 tons and brought in a huge amount of 16 million dollars for that time. But when a few years later the famous chemists Graebe and Liebermann succeeded in synthetically replicating the dye alizarin, the entire flourishing tightening industry collapsed in a short time.
Madder in the Netherlands
Meekrap has a long history in the Netherlands and is geographically strongly connected to the southern provinces. The roots were also very popular with us as a textile dye. The name still occurs as a street or place designation in West Brabant and Zeeland. The crop is already mentioned around the year 800 and in the city archives of Zierikzee there is a description from 1247 of the quality requirements that madder must meet.
In the Netherlands there was extensive madder cultivation in the 15th century, especially in Zeeland and Gelderland. The Dutch prosperity at that time was partly due to this Meekrap. Dodonaeus also describes the cultivation of Meekrap in his Cruydboeck of 1554: That tame Rotte, as he calls Rubia, is planted in Zeelant in Flanders/ and in some places of Brabant by Berghen etc. in good fat fields. That savage is already washing away in those corners of the fields under those hedges and fences.’
Around 1840, an improved separation method was discovered in France, which was soon also applied in the Netherlands. New madder factories were built until 1863. But then the 10,000 hectares of madder culture disappeared within a few years. Until around 1910, several dozen hectares were cultivated mainly for medicinal purposes.
The main reason for this decline was the large difference in production costs between chemical synthesis and the agricultural route.
The cultivation of madder has always been very labor intensive. Only three years after planting were the roots dug to a depth of 60 cm. After harvesting, the roots were dried on the land and then further dried in a so-called stewing process. By pounding the dried roots, the core containing the dye was separated from the bark. This material was the first quality. Further pounding and sieving produced the second quality.
This material was used as a powder throughout Europe in the textile industry.
New interest and cultivation.
Due to the renewed interest in vegetable dyes and the possibilities to make the cultivation of dye plants and extractions more efficient, it is possible that the old Meekrap, together with other dye plants, will soon lead a new production life. There are already new plantings of woad, Isatis tinctoria and Polygonum tinctorium in France and Rubia is once again being professionally grown and processed in the Netherlands.