carthamin

Carthamin is a natural red pigment derived from safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), earlier known as carthamine. It is used as a dye and a food coloring. As a food additive, it is known as Natural Red 26.

Safflower has been cultivated since ancient times, and carthamin was used as a dye in ancient Egypt. It was used extensively in the past for dyeing wool for the carpet industry in European countries, and in the dyeing of silk and the creation of cosmetics in Japan, where the color is called ; however, due to the expensive nature of the dye, Japanese safflower dyestuffs were sometimes diluted with other dyes, such as turmeric and sappan. It competed with the early synthetic dye fuchsine as a silk dye after fuchsine's 1859 discovery.