A Dictionary of Arts: Turmeric.

A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice

by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.

Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.

New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII

1847

TURMERIC, Curcuma, Terra merita, (Souchet, or Safran des Indes, Fr.; Gelbwurzel, Germ.), is the root of the Curcuma longa and rotunda, a plant which grows in the East-Indies, where it is much employed in dyeing yellow, as also as a condiment in curry sauce or powder. The root is knotty, tubercular, oblong, and wrinkled; pale-yellow without, and brown-yellow within; of a peculiar smell, a taste bitterish and somewhat spicy. It contains a peculiar yellow principle, called curcumine, a brown coloring-matter, a volatile oil, starch, &c. The yellow tint of turmeric is changed to brown-red by alkalis, alkaline earths, subacetate of lead, and several metallic oxydes; for which reason, paper stained with it is employed as a chemical test.

Turmeric is employed by the wool-dyers for compound colours which require an admixture of yellow, as for cheap browns and olives. As a yellow dye, it is employed only upon silk. It is a very fugitive color. A yellow lake may be made by boiling turmeric powder with a solution of alum, and pouring the filtered decoction upon pounded chalk.