Structure via PubChem · Public domain (PubChem)
Chemical data
- Formula
- C16H8Br2N2O2
- Molecular weight
- 420.05 g/mol
- IUPAC name
- (2E)-6-bromo-2-(6-bromo-3-oxo-1H-indol-2-ylidene)-1H-indol-3-one
- SMILES
- C1=CC2=C(C=C1Br)N/C(=C/3\C(=O)C4=C(N3)C=C(C=C4)Br)/C2=O
- InChIKey
- ZVAPIIDBWWULJN-BUHFOSPRSA-N
- XLogP
- 5.1
- Polar surface area
- 58.2 Ų
- H-bond donors
- 2
- H-bond acceptors
- 4
- Formal charge
- 0
via PubChem
~19 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Fabrics dyed in the current era from different species of sea snail. The colours in this photograph may not represent them accurately. Tyrian purple (Ancient Greek: πορφύρα porphúra; Latin: purpura), also known as royal purple, imperial purple, imperial dye, or simply tyrian, is a reddish-purple natural dye. It is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, rock snails originally known by the name Murex (Bolinus brandaris, Hexaplex trunculus and Stramonita haemastoma). The coloured compound is 6,6'-dibromoindigo.
The name Tyrian refers to the city of Tyre in ancient Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon). In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labour, and as a result, the dye was highly valued.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tyrian purple” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.