Crossword-Solution: ALIZARIN 8 letters, 8 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 17

What should I set myself to produce? I proposed to extract the coloring substance, alizarin, to separate it from the other matters found with it in the root, to obtain it in the pure state and in a form that allowed of the direct printing of the stuffs, a much quicker and more artistic method than the old dyeing process.

Before the importation of aniline and alizarin dyes, which amounted in 1907 to 160,558 pounds and 7,170,320 pounds respectively, the cultivation of indigo was much more extensive than at present, amounting in 1897 to 160,460,000 pounds of the dried leaves; but in 1906 the production had fallen to 58,696,000 pounds, forty-five per cent of which was grown in the prefecture of Tokushima in the eastern part of the island of Shikoku.

With concentrated nitric acid the product assumes a red colour, which appears to be due to the presence of impurities; ellagic acid is commercially known as "alizarin yellow." The constitution of ellagic acid was uncertain for a long time, and different structural formulae were proposed which more or less corresponded to its properties.

While admitting that the new product was identical with the alizarin extracted from madder, we were led to conclude that in order to produce fine Turkey reds, the coloring matters which accompany alizarin must play an important part.

Alizarin is derived from monosulphanthraquinonic acid, on melting with the hydrate of potassa or soda.