Mystery Blue

Muicle (Justicia spicigera)or Mexican Honeysuckle, is a pretty incredible plant. It is native to Oaxaca and gives the most awesome purple-blues which my eyes have ever seen.. Can you see how radiant that blue is? (no filter used!).

Muicle grows abundantly & is found in so many different climates & landscapes, from the coast all the way up to 3000 metres altitude. In dry oak & pine woodlands to humid jungle & cloud forests. It grows everywhere, especially disturbed agricultural land, along hedgerows and in gardens.

Some consider the plant to be an invasive weed…Others understand its magic and pigment content..

Aside from the incredible colour, the remarkable thing about this dye is that it’s main pigment does not appear to be indigo, despite being blue..!?!

It does contain some indigo, but its not the main pigment... And, weirdly, the colour is extracted in water using heat…so unlike other indigofera sources which require a fermentation process..

The leaves are stripped from branches, chopped and macerated and then slowly brought up to simmer and gently boiled for a few hours in a pot of water along with the fibres to be dyed. Sometimes a copper container is used, and in this case, an aluminium pot which is commonly used for cooking frejioles in the mercados.

After a few minutes the water turns pink, then to lilac.. a little while later its purle, after about an hour of boiling its BLUE!!

J. spicigera is considered one of the most ancient plants used among artisan weavers in Santa Maria Atzompa, Oaxaca, Mexico. It is also used in Veracruz for basketry. And the Yucatan, Campeche, & Quintana Roo states in Mexico, for dyeing clothing.
It was used as a dye by the Huasteca, Maya and Nahuatl cultures during colonial and pre-Hispanic times. The dye was also used in colonial paintings.
Macerated leaves produce a blue-purple dye which is used to obtain various hues of blue from pale lilac to dark blue.

The plant is traditionally used medicinally for a range of bodily ailments relating to digestive system, eyes & for serious parasitic diseases which are common in this part of the world. The locals here tell me it is rich in iron and good for womb cramps & anaemia - A simple test with the stalk dipped in cochineal ink, turned black, to tell me it is high in mineral iron.

Academic sources tell me that it is being researched for its potency in healing global systemic diseases including anaemia, diabetes and cancer.
Such a powerful medicinal dye plant.

It is used traditionally as a medicinal infusion drink and therefore also being developed now commercially as a natural food colorant.

The technique of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), is able to show the tridimensional spectrum of J. spicigera extract, some of which is indigo, however, the main pigment is still undetermined.
The SERS observation indicates a clear difference between indigo & J. spicigera extracts, the Raman spectrum of indigo occurs in the regions of 545 cm-1 [δ (C=C-CO-C)] and 1574 cm-1 [ν (CC ), ν (C=C), ν (C=O)], - signals that are not present in the Raman spectrum of J. spicigera extracts. (Itzamna Baqueiro-Pena and Jose A. Guerrero-Beltran).

Could this be an unknown colour?! Its certainly not a natural colour my eyes have seen before. Do you see how it glows in the photos?

What do you love about this dye plant? Leave your comments below!

Much love, Babs :) xx