Abstract
Before chemical methods of reduction were introduced in the past century, dyeing using the pigment indigo required a fermenting woad vat to reduce the insoluble indigo to a soluble form1,2. We have reproduced mediaeval techniques of woad preparation3 and fermentation, and find that a thermophilic Clostridium bacterium was responsible for the reduction of indigo.
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References
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Padden, A., Dillon, V., John, P. et al. Clostridium used in mediaeval dyeing. Nature 396, 225 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/24290
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/24290
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