Natural dye

A natural dye is colour taken from plants, insects or minerals rather than made synthetically. "Vegetable dye" is the usual trade term, though some natural reds come from insects. Persian dyers fixed them with mordants, chiefly alum. Iranica reports vegetable dyes in common use in Iran until the 1940s; synthetic dyes appeared in Persian carpets from the 1870s and later took over commercial production.

Also vegetable dye · vegetable dyes · vegetal dye · veg dye · vegetable-dyed · natural-dyed

See also Mordant, Madder, Indigo, Aniline dye, Chrome dye, Abrash

Last reviewed November 2026