Characterization of Yellow Dyes in Nineteenth-Century Chinese Textiles

Abstract

The dyes in several specimens of yellow-dyed silk objects in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA) were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector and mass spectrometric analysis, after mild extractionfrom the silk fibers. Most of these items were goods transported from southern China during the nineteenth century to the Americas on American 'China trade' ships. The objectives of this study were (1) to identify the dyestuffs used in a specific geographical area within a specific time period (i.e. China in the nineteenth century) and (2) to use this knowledge to deduce information about the dyed textiles themselves. It was found that three distinct classes of dye were used: curcumin (from turmeric - Curcuma longa or a similar species), fiavonoid (from pagoda tree buds - Sophora japonica) and protoberberine (from huangteng - a species of Fibraurea). Huangteng is unusual in that it actually contains no berberine, but rather the related dye, palmatine. Although huangteng has been reported as having been used as a dyestuff, this is the first report of its being detected in a specific dyed object.

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