The Story of Scarlet

In ancient times red dye for textiles was made from cinnabar. Cinnabar was a mineral by-product of the mining of mercury. Mercury is a highly toxic substance. Cinnabar has been mined since Neolithic times. In the Roman era, cinnabar was crushed to make quicksilver mercury.

Pedanius Dioscorides: Image via Wikipedia

Then in the 1st century AD, Pedanius Dioscorides, was in Britain as a physician to the occupying Roman Army. He was a man with an inquiring mind for natural remedies from plants and minerals. On trees in Britain he discovered a bug, now called the kermes ilices. He thought it was a berry and called it the “oak berry”. He experimented with the bug and discovered he could make a fairly stable red dye with it. This scarlet dye was safer than cinnabar and a new industry flourished, not only in the UK but also in Spain. The name kermes ilices comes from Arabic and Sanskrit words for red and worm.

Kermes was used as payment for troops in the Roman Empire and for rent in the Middle Ages. Kermes based red dye reigned until the 1400s when it was upstaged by the finding of a cochineal insect in Central and South America. This insect, often found on cacti, is processed to create an acid that makes carmine red. The story of scarlet then moved to the New World and carmine became an important Spanish colonial export, especially for Peru and Mexico. The industry was temporarily disrupted by the use of synthetic dye, alizarin crimson, but allergies have brought about a resurgence of cochineal carmine.

See also:

http://healthmad.com/home-health/pedanius-dioscorides-man-of-medicine/