English

Rubia cordifolia

Noun

munjeet ‎(usually uncountable, plural munjeets)

1. The plant Rubia cordifolia, or Indian madder; the dye extracted from the plant.
   • 1831, Appendix I: Dying Drugs from South America, Transactions of the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Volume XLVIII, page 190,

     The colour of all is red; that of munjeet being a yellow, or orange red, that of the lac a bluish or crimson red, and that of the Bignonia a brown red.

   • 1853, James Napier, Chemistry Applied to Dyeing, page 389,

     The stalks of the munjeet are very dry, light, and porous; the fracture exhibits a congeries of empty tubes. The powdered munjeet is composed of the thin and thick stalks mixed.

   • 1871, Crace Calvert, Cantor Lecture II: On Dyes and Dyestuffs other than Aniline, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Volume 19, page 815,

     He states that the munjeet root contains as much colouring matter as the Rubia tinctorum, and, according to Mr. Higgins, of Manchester, it yields from 52 to 55 per cent. of a garancine; but as it has only half the dyeing power of ordinary garancine, it cannot be employed with advantage for this purpose.

   • 1918, Arthur George Perkin, Arthur Ernest Everest, The Natural Organic Colouring Matters, page 42,

     Runge, who examined the tinctorial power of munjeet, concluded that it contained twice as much available colouring matter as madder; but later experiments have shown that the colouring power is actually less.

Related terms

• munjistine