Analytical methods for determination of anthraquinone dyes in historical textiles: A review

Abstract

Historical and archaeological textiles are among the most crucial and vulnerable records of our social and cultural history. Analysis of organic colorants found in these materials is unquestionably one of the most powerful tools to understand historical developments, cultural exchanges, and progress in science and technology. Natural anthraquinones represent the most commonly used natural colorants for textile dyeing until the late 19 th century. The identification of anthraquinones in cultural heritage objects is a challenging task due to the small size of historical samples, diversity of potential dye sources, variable extraction procedures and dyeing methods, complex chemical constitution, structurally analogous chromophores, and possible presence of degradation products and contaminants. Developments in dye analysis of historical interest have originated and expanded along with the general advances in analytical science. In the last few decades, a close cooperation between science and cultural heritage disciplines contributed enormously to this field. The topic of historical dyes and their analysis in textiles, artworks, archaeological objects and cultural heritage materials has been reviewed several times in the last fifteen years. However, no review has been published to-date exclusively on the analysis of anthraquinone colorants in historical and archaeological textiles. Overall, liquid chromatography (LC)-based techniques have been the most widely used method for anthraquinone dye analysis. Owing to increasing demand of minimally invasive/non-invasive techniques, recent developments of novel techniques have resulted in the availability of many alternative/complementary methods to LC-based analysis. This review begins with a short overview of sources, chemistry and importance of natural anthraquinone dyes found in historical textiles before turning to a detailed discussion on developments involving established and emerging analytical techniques of anthraquinone dye analysis for textile cultural heritage materials. To illustrate the state-of-the-art, representative examples of analytical techniques highlighting their advantages, limitations and applicability are also presented.

Microbial degradation of dyes: An overview

“…Color of the dye may be influenced by different effects of substituents such as electron accepting and electron donating substituents. Common natural red colorants comprise presence of anthraquinones which are highly used in textile industries (Shahid et al, 2019). Anthraquinone dyes have been reported as the oldest dyes because they have been found thousands years back and were used in wrapping mummies.…”

A new method for the conservation of ancient colored paintings on ramie textiles

“…The raw materials that have been used for textiles include cotton, ma, silk, wool, goat hair, and so on. Previous reports mainly focus on the degradation and ageing of linen, wool and silk textiles [2][3][4][5], the preservation environment of archaeological textiles [6,7], the analysis and identi cation of textile components [8][9][10][11][12][13], the fungal contamination and splicing technology of textile objects [14,15]. After the rst conference on textile conservation held by IIC in The Netherlands in 1964 [16], certain textile conservation methods have been developed, including disinfecting of textile objects [17], cleaning [18], mounting [19], and stitching techniques [20].…”

A New Method for Conservation of Ancient Colored Drawing on Hemp Textiles

“…To solve these problems, the optimal conservation measures should be taken to rid the inappropriate fragment sand improve the properties of textile objects for the long-term stability [2],thereby to slow down the rate of the further deterioration of hemp artifacts as much as possible [3].There is no universal protective measure for all textiles, normal conservation measures include cleaning dust and stains, pre-reinforcement of colored painting, xing separate parts, supporting weak and damaged areas with new fabrics using stitching techniques, and so on. Previous reports mainly focus on the degradation of historical textiles [4][5][6][7], the preservation environment of archaeological textiles [8,9], identi cation of dyestuffs in historical textiles [10][11][12][13], examination of cellulose textile bers [14], fungal contamination of textile objects [15], and textile cleaning [16].…”