Biochromes

Chemical compounds are stored in plant cells. The colour-producing chemicals are called biochromes.

The basics of extracting botanical colours

In order to release these chemicals and make them available for ink, we crush and/or cook the plant materials in water to break down the cell walls. Once the chemicals are released from the plant cell, they become available to use as-is, or we can transform them to other colours by chemically altering their composition. Sometimes, simply exposing the biochromes to water, oxygen, and/or heat will transform them to different colours.

Common biochromes and their sources

There appears to be little easy-to-find research about biochromes in ink-making; however, there is a lot of research for food manufacturing and natural dyeing. For both, you need to remember that biochromes interacting with paper may be different than protein fibres (wool, silk), and how they mix with other food-safe chemicals. Do a little research, and then do a lot of experimenting!

Family	Colours	Plants / parts of plants
Tannins	Brown, black	Galls, tree bark (e.g., spruce, willow), berries (e.g., rowan, hawthorn)
Flavonoids	Yellow	Onion skin, gorse petals
Anthochlors	Red, orange	Carnation, cosmos (petals)
Anthocyanins	Red, green, purple, etc	Chokeberry, cabbage
Quinones	Orange, red, brown	Madder, walnut, henna
Carotenoids	Orange	Carrots