The indigo dyeing report, which is similar to the serialization, continues.
Don't you wonder why indigo dyeing was used not only in Japan but also in other countries around the world, such as the cloth used to cover mummies over 5,000 years ago?
The craftsman generously told me one speculation about the discovery of indigo.
First, there is a big difference between humans and plants.
Plants can make their own energy source, glucose, through photosynthesis, water, and carbon dioxide.
We humans cannot produce our own energy source, glucose, so we ingest it from food such as plants. So we can walk on our feet and move to capture energy sources.
Plants can be self-sufficient without moving, so as you can see, they dignifiedly enter the ground and do not move.
This is a common sight, but it's amazing when you think about it. Hmmm
Plants can be self-sufficient in glucose. However, in order to use glucose when necessary, it exists in combination with various substances (A, B, C...) and glucose (Glc).
These are called glycosides (A-Glc, B-Glc, C-Glc...). It is a glycoside because a sugar is coordinated to a substance.
In indigo, a substance called indigo gives a blue color. It exists in the leaves of plants in the form of a glycoside called indican, which is a combination of indigo and glucose.
When sugar is needed, the enzyme that cuts the bond in the plant works. When indican is enzymatically cleaved, it is degraded into blue indigo and glucose.
Since it is not normally used, the enzyme is not working, so it is stored as a glycoside.
The leaves of plants are green because chlorophyll is green.
However, if you cut off the leaves or cut off the branches, the plant will die.
Then, the control of the enzyme that cuts the bond is cut off, and the cleavage reaction proceeds at once .
Then, leaves that contain a lot of indican will produce a lot of indigo and turn blue.
As a result, when people in the past saw dead leaves, they became interested in plants that turned blue. It's a guess.
Plants that contain a lot of it include Tate indigo of the knotweed family, Ryukyu indigo of the foxglove family, Indian indigo of the leguminous family, and Ward of the brassicaceae family.
There are simply plants with high concentrations of indican in various countries around the world, and the history of people in the past who happened to see dead leaves and made indigo dyeing. Awesome.
Isn't it interesting that you can get a different perspective when you approach history from chemistry?
As an aside, I Kojima is a pharmacist. Let me tell you a little bit about herbal medicine.
In fact, herbal medicines are also glycosides. A sugar is bound to something that has medicinal properties.
So where is it split? Intestines (Some cram school teacher style)
There are many types of human intestinal bacteria. When you start taking it, the intestinal bacteria that decompose it increase and decompose it, and the active ingredient is absorbed from the intestine and exhibits physiological activity.
Therefore, the reason why Kampo medicine takes time to take effect is related to the decomposition speed of this intestinal bacteria.
Also, people who take or do not drink (poor compliance) are less effective because the intestinal bacteria do not increase.
I was surprised because I never thought that the glycosides of Chinese herbal medicine and the glycosides of indigo dye would be connected in this way.
There are still a lot of things I don't know, but I would like to take a different approach and convey it to everyone so that they can be interested.
A limited number of tie-dyed handkerchiefs dyed with genuine indigo by Ms. Yukari Saka are now on sale.
Pint! Indigo Dyed Organic Linen Handkerchief Hotaru
Kojima