First of all, we will stock up on some plants: from them we will prepare real paints. But before you go to the field or the forest, read the explanations, not too long.

Until the XNUMXth century, people did not know other dyes than those supplied by nature. For paints, they took ground stones, burnt earth, colored clay. And when it was necessary to dye fabric for clothes, they used dyeing plants. Sometimes bark, sometimes leaves, roots, stems, flowers.

Now almost all dyes are made in chemical plants. Only sometimes, very rarely, some natural substances are used for artistic paints. And less and less often you can find names that were previously well-known: red sandalwood, indigo, logwood, carmine.

It would be interesting to check whether the old dyes are really so good. But logwood grows in South America... And yet you can get something without going to distant lands. Plants that are familiar to us also have dyes. We will extract them. And in order not to try in vain, we will prepare home-made watercolor paints, that is, soluble in water.

The method of extracting dyes from all plants is the same: grind, put in a clean enamel bowl and boil for several hours in water over low heat to make a strong decoction. Since the dishes may become stained, it is better not to take a new pan. After washing the dishes properly, you can cook the next decoction in it.

Keep in mind that the broth should be moderately thick, and not quite like water; if it is thin, then keep it on fire without a lid so that part of the water evaporates. It is not necessary to evaporate to dryness: all the same, then you will have to dissolve in water.

Now a very important note. Further I will call the plants by their names, but it is quite possible (and very likely) that you do not know what all these herbs, trees and bushes look like. Consult with someone who is well versed in plants. For example, with a biology teacher, Or find a reference book on botany in the library. Such reference books usually contain both descriptions of plants and their images.

When gathering plants, exercise moderation. To prepare a decoction, it is quite enough to take a few copies; it is difficult to say exactly how many, but, in any case, the larger the specimens, the less they are required. And of course, the account should go not to tens, but to units.

What color do we start with? From red!

To get a red dye, prepare a decoction of the stalks of St. John's wort and add a little vinegar for brightness. Another option: decoction from the root of the bedstraw, Third: from the roots of horse sorrel (in this case, add a little alum to the decoction). The fourth option: from alder bark, which before that must be soaked in water for three to four days.

I foresee the question: why not make the dye from something more familiar, say, from beets? Because the paint will be unstable. And also because beetroot juice is sensitive to changes in acidity. Even for lollipops and sweet creams, they do not take beetroot decoctions, but others, more persistent - say, from black grapes.

Yellow is also common in nature. For the dye, bedstraw flowers, hazel bark, leaves, berries and bark of alder buckthorn, any parts of dyeing gorse are suitable. If you take the fruits of barberry, you get a lemon-colored dye. And from the stems and leaves of celandine - orange.

Let's move on to the green dye. It would seem that it can be made from any leaves, but this is not at all the case. Chlorophyll, which you know how to extract from leaves, does not dissolve in water and is not suitable for watercolors. However, a bright green decoction is obtained from the leaves of the trefoil. A slightly duller, greyish-green dye can be obtained from the stems and leaves of the cuff, previously crushed (the finer the better).

Blue dye is advised to prepare from larkspur flowers or buckwheat roots. But, perhaps, the brightest blue color is obtained if the roots of elecampane are held in ammonia before cooking.

A brown dye can be made from dry joster bark. It is even easier to prepare a decoction of dried onion husks.

The origin of the purple dye is obvious: from blueberries or blackberries. How about getting black?

You can boil berries or crow roots. But this is optional. The fact is that the decoctions that you have already prepared turn black in the presence of substances containing iron. Add a little iron sulfate to any decoction - and the black dye is ready. Iron sulphate is sold in hardware stores, but if suddenly it was not there, prepare it from copper sulphate by lowering iron filings into the blue solution.

Once you have a few decoctions, start making paint. It would be necessary to introduce a substance into it that will bond the paint to the paper. You can add a little glue prepared with water, such as casein or polyvinyl acetate. But this is both unreliable and uninteresting. Let's do as the real masters of making paints did in the old days.

Let's take advantage of the fact that these miracles are summer, and get a sticky substance from a cherry, plum or apricot tree.

On the trunks of fruit trees, a sticky resin is collected, which is called gum. Remove, trying not to get dirty, a few pieces of gum (this will not harm the tree) and dissolve in water with the addition of vinegar (in water without acid, dissolution is very slow). Take a little more water than gum. Prepare a solution at once for all the paints that you are going to make. For each color you will need approximately 5 - 10 g of this adhesive solution.

Another component of the paint is a substance that will not allow it to spread over the paper, that is, a fairly thick substance. For example, molasses, honey. Or if it’s a pity to translate delicious things, then pharmacy glycerin. Mix the gum solution with an equal amount of glycerin. If you opted for honey, take it three times less than glycerin.

Substances extracted from plants spoil easily, like food that is not kept in the refrigerator. To keep your paint from rotting and moldy, add a few drops of some kind of liquid disinfectant to it. For example, a solution of phenol (aka carbolic acid), a solution of resorcinol or cresol - which can be found in the nearest pharmacy.

Mix thoroughly all the components of the future paint and add a thick decoction of the dye last. Take it about the same amount as you got the basis for the paint. Do not forget to divide it into several servings, according to the number of prepared decoctions. Stir again properly - and homemade paint is ready.

It may seem strange to you that it is liquid, and not solid, in the tiles. However, artists often use just such paint; it is sold in tubes and is called semi-liquid. Home-made paint, probably, will give way to the factory one, but it is made by hand.

Water is slowly evaporating from your homemade paint, and this is not good for her. If you decide to keep the paint for a long time, until autumn or winter, be sure to pour it into tightly closed bottles, say, pharmacy vials with rubber stoppers.

I hope you enjoy working with natural dyes. If you wish, you can continue it, but with a different purpose: not for drawing, but for dyeing fabric. At the same time, you will get acquainted with one of the most ancient and respected crafts - the craft of a dyer.

Just please don't try to immediately paint a thing that has at least some value. Take some clean cotton or linen shreds, preferably white, and if you are dealing with woolen yarn, then unwind a little. Prepare a little solution in a bowl. And when you are convinced that the experiment was successful, that the paint has the right color and it holds firmly, then you can move from experience to practice, asking permission from the elders. But remember: the thing you are going to paint must be from the same material as in the experiment. And even though it will not be new and not expensive ...

In order for the natural paint to turn out bright and not be washed off by the very first drop of water, the fabric was etched in the old days, that is, it was kept in a hot solution of alum, vitriol or another substance. Do the same: hold a piece of cotton or linen fabric or yarn in a hot solution of alum, and then put it in a hot broth. Be careful not to splash or burn yourself. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce the heat, and let the fabric stain for about half an hour. Then let it cool without removing it from the bowl.

A decoction for dyeing fabrics should be much thinner than for watercolors. If you use one of the decoctions you have stored, then dilute it with water. How exactly is hard to say. Choose the strength of the solution empirically. The paint will turn out pale - add a decoction, too thick and dark - add water.

Here are a few plants from which dye solutions for fabrics used to be prepared. Onion peel: after the action of alum, linen or woolen fabric becomes yellow-red, after iron sulfate - green. Rhubarb root gives marsh color after ferrous sulfate. Alder bark: dark red color. Ash bark: blue. Birch leaves: gray-green color.

Ground raw coffee beans, boiled with washing soda, turn wool green if it is first pickled in a solution of alum.

It's time to move on to other summer experiences. But if you do not want to part with dyeing, then here is a task for independent work: check the coloring actions of other plants. Are they suitable for watercolors and fabrics? Do I need to take a pickle and what kind? It is possible that you will be able to find a combination that no one has known before. So it turns out that you seem to have recently started doing chemical experiments, but look - you can already make a modest discovery ...

Let's take care of the flowers, which themselves, without our help, are dyed with natural dyes. In the last century, there was such a fashion: to write the names of guests on flower petals and lay out the petals on the table, near the plates, so that it was clear to each guest what place at the table was intended for him ...

The principle here is the same as when working with indicators: under the action of acid or alkali, the coloring matter of the flower acquires a new shade. If we take, say, rose petals, then writing with acid usually turns red, and with alkali it turns blue or green.

You have a wide field of activity - you can experience a variety of petals. Buy some fine feathers and a pen at the stationery store. When changing the solution with which you write on the petals, do not forget to rinse the pen with clean water. Try to leave thinner lines on the petal. Instead of a pen, you can take a needle or a thin brush.

Now about acids and alkalis. Try vinegar, citric acid solution, pharmacy hydrochloric acid. Be aware that strong acid can burn through the petal; if this happens, dilute it with water. But not too much, because a very weak acid may leave no trace at all. As for alkalis, try a solution of washing soda and ammonia; however, the solution may also be too or not strong enough.

The flowers on which you will write, I will not name: choose them yourself. Both garden and home flowers are suitable: for example, uzambar violet, cyclamen, primrose. So the experiment can, if desired, be put in the winter.

Keep in mind that not all substances will necessarily act on the petal. It was not possible to make an inscription - change the solution, none of your solutions worked - well, you have to take the petals of another flower.

You have already extracted indicators, detergents, dyes from plants. This is not all that is in plants, but the rest of the substances are difficult to obtain by simple means. Unless the inhibitors...

There are substances that slow down chemical reactions, prevent them from going at their proper speed. These are inhibitors.

Imagine that an iron part needs to be cleaned of rust. Ripping off with a file or sandpaper is long and not very pleasant; but if you dip the part in acid, just look, it will corrode, along with rust, the iron itself. In such cases, inhibitors are needed: they will slow down the reaction of the acid with iron.

One of the inhibitors with the long name "hexamethylene-tetramine" (or urotropin) is sold in a pharmacy - of course, for completely different purposes. But it's probably more interesting to get inhibitors from plants. Remember: three or four specimens of plants are enough - after all, you will need a little inhibitor.

From what grows in the garden, potatoes, tomatoes and poppies will be of interest. You will need leaves and stems, so wait until the harvest is done and then take samples for testing. Some wild plants are also suitable: yarrow, medicinal marshmallow, celandine.

The inhibitor will be extracted by extraction. Grind the leaves and stems and pour a weak solution of hydrochloric acid (dilute pharmaceutical acid with an equal or slightly larger amount of water). Cover the container in which you are extracting and leave for about a week so that the acid solution extracts more substances from the stems and leaves. If there is no acid, you can take gasoline or acetone instead, but in this case you need to tightly close the dishes and keep them in a place where there is no and cannot be fire: gasoline and acetone are combustible.

When the greens are infused, prepare a solution that will remove rust from iron. To 100 ml of pharmaceutical hydrochloric acid, add 5 ml of the prepared extract; Use a beaker or measuring cup. If the part is not very rusty, then take the acid in half with water.

Now you can safely put an iron part into the solution. In a few minutes, it will shine like new, and no harm will be done to the iron. To check, dip some unnecessary rusty piece of iron simply into an acid solution and see what comes of it.

Please be careful when doing this experiment, as even one drop of dilute acid can ruin clothes. As soon as you finish the experiment, immediately pour out the rest of the solution. If you are going to use a cleaned part, wash it under running water.

A few words about why plant inhibitors prevent acid from corroding iron. Molecules of certain substances contained in plants are fixed on the surface of the metal. They do not allow acid molecules to approach the iron and thus protect it.

Finally - miracles of a different kind. Let's see how plants manage to pump water from the bottom up, from the roots to the leaves, without any pumps.

Take a fresh carrot, cut off the tops and on top, where the carrot has a hole, insert a glass tube. Pour water into a glass and put the carrot upright in it. Think about how to strengthen it so that it does not fall. Pour salted water up to half of the tube and watch what happens next.

And this is what will happen: the liquid in the tube will begin to rise. If everything is done carefully, then the water may even spill out of the tube. It is the carrot that pumps the water out of the glass, causing it to move upwards. She behaves the same way in the garden when you water her. Salt is needed only to make the experience go faster.

If you have patience, you can do without salt. Right in the flower bed, about 10 cm from the ground, cut off the stem of a faded dahlia or tobacco. Put a short rubber tube on the rest of the stem, insert a glass tube into it and tie it to a peg driven in nearby. If the rubber tube does not fit tightly on the stem, cover the junction with plasticine. Now for watering. Water abundantly, and very soon liquid will appear in the glass tube. Try to take the tube narrower and make the connections tighter - the liquid will rise quickly and high.

The same phenomenon can be detected without any tube. Pour well some small plant, say nasturtium, and cover it with an inverted jar. Pretty soon, water droplets will appear on the leaves.

Let's try to figure out what's the matter here. For speed, we will work with a plant model. Sugar syrup will serve as a model for us.

Heat water in a small saucepan and, while it is still warm, pour enough sugar into it so that it no longer dissolves. Fill a glass with this syrup to the top and cover with a sheet of cellophane or parchment, well soaked in water (the sheet should become soft). Tie the leaf tightly with a thread and make sure that there are no air bubbles under it. Such a device is a model of a plant cell enlarged thousands of times.

Place the glass in the jar and pour water on top to cover the glass. After a few hours, the leaf will swell and form a bubble. The soaked leaf serves as a partition. It allows water molecules to pass through, but retains much larger sugar molecules. Such partitions are called semi-permeable. What happens when there is water on one side and syrup on the other? Water molecules try to penetrate the glass and dilute the strong sugar solution. As a result, the glass overflows with liquid and the leaf takes the form of a bubble.

Approximately the same thing happens in plant cells filled with cell sap. Substances important for plant life are dissolved in it. Water, trying to dilute the juice, goes from the roots to the leaves. And its excess evaporates through the tiny holes that are in every green leaf.

Sprinkle a slice of lemon or a garden strawberry cut in half with powdered sugar - the juice will immediately begin to stand out. It penetrates through partitions in plant cells and dilutes the sugar solution that has formed on the surface of a lemon or strawberry (garden strawberry).

Juice is also released from vegetables if they are salted. When sauerkraut is fermented, the juice is formed very quickly and without any water. You already know why.

The stalk of grass and the trunk of a tree are pierced with thin and thinnest vessels. Such narrow tubes - capillaries - help water, and indeed any liquid, move from bottom to top without outside help. The thinnest of them work like a good pump.

Cut off several stems and branches from different plants. For example, stalks of nettle and tulip, a branch of lilac. Water, slightly tinted with ink (preferably red), pour into several cans. Just before the experiment, cut the stems and branches under water and put them in tinted water. After a few hours, take out the plants and make several cuts - along the stem and across the stem. Examine them through a magnifying glass: the tinted water made the vessels of the plants visible. But why was it necessary to cut the branches under water?

Pour tinted water into a plate, dip a not very thin stem into it and cut off a piece under water. Cut the same stem in the air and also put it in tinted water. After a few minutes, take out both stems, cut them lengthwise and see which one has moved the paint further.

Air pockets can easily appear in the thin vessels of plants. They will definitely prevent the water from rising up to the leaves and flowers. And the plant will soon wither. And when the stem is cut underwater, there is no air lock.

Now you can justifiably advise others: before putting flowers in a vase, they must be cut under water - after all, you proved this with the help of an experiment. Water will easily penetrate the flowers, and they will retain freshness for a long time.

The last experience in this chapter is entirely underwater. He will show you how one of the most important reactions on earth proceeds - the reaction of photosynthesis, during which green leaves, under the influence of light, release oxygen - a gas vital to all life on earth. If there were no green plants and photosynthesis on our planet, there would be neither animals nor people...

The experience itself is quite simple.

For him, you need to get a small aquarium or at least a two-liter glass jar. The vessel must certainly be transparent - do not forget that oxygen is formed under the influence of light. And you can pour any water into this vessel - well, river, from a tap. To make the experience go faster, it does not hurt to add a quarter glass of mineral water. The salts contained in it serve as food for the plant. Put any aquarium plant in a vessel with water. Cover the plant with an inverted glass (necessarily transparent!) funnel, and put an inverted test tube on its spout.

Next to the aquarium or jar, about half a meter or a little closer, place a table lamp, turn it on and shine the light on the plant under the funnel. Look at the plant from time to time, observe how it behaves. A few hours later, a noticeable amount of gas will collect in the test tube. Carefully remove the test tube from the vessel, quickly turn it upside down and insert the extinguished, but still smoldering thin splinter inside. Immediately, the splinter will flare up, and this is a sure sign that there is oxygen in the test tube.

However, maybe you think that light is not so necessary for the formation of oxygen? Great: set up exactly the same experiment in the dark.

Author: Olgin O.M.

 We recommend interesting experiments in physics:

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