Ancient recipes led scientists to a long-lost natural blue
Medieval texts and modern techniques helped unveil the blue watercolor’s identity
![fruit from the plant Chrozophora tinctoria](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/041720_cw_medieval-blue_feat_rev.jpg?fit=1028%2C579&ssl=1)
Medieval recipes instructed scientists to prepare the blue watercolor from the fruits of Chrozophora tinctoria. That provided enough dye to reveal its structure using a suite of chemical analysis techniques.
Paula Nabais/NOVA Univ.