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, 13:35, 5 August 2007
{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = Alkanet
| image = Alkanna tinctoria2.jpg
| image_width = 250px
| image_caption = Dyer's Bugloss
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[Magnoliopsida]]
| familia = [[Boraginaceae]]
| genus = ''[[Alkanna]]''
| species = '''''A. tinctoria'''''
| binomial = ''Alkanna tinctoria''
| binomial_authority = ([[Carolus Linnaeus|L.]]) Tausch
}}
The name '''alkanet''' generally refers to ''Alkanna tinctoria'' or '''Dyer's Bugloss''' (though it may be used for ''Anchusa officinalis'' or '''Common Bugloss''').
It is a member of the Borage family [[Boraginaceae]].
''Alkanna tinctoria'' is also known as orchanet, dyer's [[bugloss]], Spanish bugloss or bugloss of Languedoc. Its name comes from the Spanish word ''alcana'', from Arabic ''al-hena'', after [[henna]], (''Lawsonia inermis'').
Alkanet is grown in the south of [[France]] and on the shores of the [[Levant]]. It has a dark red root of blackish appearance externally but inside showing a blue-red meat, surrounding a whitish core. Its root yields a fine red colouring matter which has been used as a cloth [[dye]] and to tint [[tincture]]s, [[Vegetable oil|oil]]s, [[wine]]s, [[varnish]]es, etc. It was often used to improve the appearance of poor grades of [[port]] and similar wines, and to give the appearance of age to port wine corks. It is commonly used today as a [[food additive|food colouring]] E103 ([[chrysoine resorcinol]]).
It was listed in the 1918 U.S. Dispensatory. [http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/usdisp/alkanna.html]
{{Commons|Alkanna tinctoria}}
==References==
*{{1911}}
*{{Grocers}}
{{Asterid-stub}}
[[Category:Boraginaceae]]
[[Category:Dyes]]
[[Category:Food colorings]]