Odling av färgväxter. En kulturhistorisk undersökning ur ett hortikulturellt perspektiv

Abstract

This work describes dye plants and their cultivation through the history until present day. Some species has traditionally been cultivated through centuries to extract dyestuff for dyeing textile fibers. Natural dyes are today a growing interest connected to the awareness of environment issues and finite resources. The main problem and also the starting point were the obvious lack of documentation of this subject. The goal was to unite and increase the existing knowledge about dye plants to preserve a horticultural heritage. The work is mainly based on studies of literature and by interviews of competent informants with experience from cultivation of cultivated plants. Plant lists from old literature and documents raised the discussion of possible plants for dyeing, and ecological, horticultural and economical values were compared to each other. A chronologic presentation of the dye plants history and cultivation together with proposals of conceivable species for future dye plants compose the results. Conclusions of this work show the importance to exploit edible crops for extracting natural colorants is necessary for a sustainable cultivation. Dye plants are a renewable resource, but that doesn´t ensure that the chain of processes to fix the colorant at the textile fibers is sustainable. Opportunities to optimize the usage of crops will be of great consequence ahead. Proposals for combining crops grown for both food and color, supplies the existing knowledge in this subject to develop sustainable field utilization.