At least in a manner of speaking.聽When Hernan Cortez came to America in 1518 he was intrigued by the beautifully coloured Aztec fabrics, particularly the stunning reds.聽He asked the natives about the source of the colorant and was shown some specks on a cactus plant.聽Closer scrutiny revealed that the little specks were actually little bugs.聽Today we know them as Dactylopius coccus, or simply as cochineal.聽The dye that can be extracted from these insects is called carmine.聽Montezuma was so fond of it that he imposed a tax upon his subjects that had to be paid in dried cochineal bugs.
Carmine went over big in Europe.聽Wool and silk were dyed with it, but perhaps the most memorable use of cochineal red was in the brilliant scarlet colours for which the Gobelin tapestries of Paris became famous.聽Producing the dye was not an easy business.聽It is the female insects that feed on the red cactus berries and concentrate the dye in their bodies and in that of their unhatched larvae.聽They are scraped off the cactus and are dumped into hot water where they instantly die.聽Their corpses are then dried in the sun and crushed into a powder.聽This can then be added to water or to a water-alcohol mixture to produce 鈥渂ug juice鈥� for dying purposes.聽A mordant such as alum, which binds the colour to fabrics is often used.
Carminic acid, the active colouring agent, is one of the safest dyes that exist and is commonly used in foods and cosmetics.聽Candies, ice cream, beverages, yogurt, lipstick and eye shadow can all be coloured with cochineal.聽Allergies are possible but are rare.聽There have been reports about reactions to Campari, pink popsicles, maraschino cherries or red lipstick, but these are less frequent than reactions to other components in foods and cosmetics.聽In one instance, a little boy鈥檚 face swelled after being kissed by his loving grandmother.聽It seems he had been sensitized to carmine, probably through food or candies, and reacted to the colouring in the lipstick.聽Obviously, he will have to be careful in the future when he becomes involved in romantic escapades.聽Reactions to carmine tend to be in the form of hives and swelling although one case of anaphylactic reaction to Campari-Orange has been reported.
The cochineal insects are very small.聽It takes about 70,000 females to produce a pound of dye.聽The males are quite useless in this respect.聽They are also rare and live for only a week, just long enough to mate with as many females as possible.聽And how are they separated?聽The males can fly but the wingless females cannot.聽When the cactus is disturbed, the males scoot, but the females cannot escape.聽They are scraped off, destined to colour our cherry or strawberry ice cream.聽Some people may not find the prospect聽of ice cream coloured with bug juice appetizing, but cochineal red is an effective and safe dye鈥�most of the time.
Want to comment on this article?
