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Logwood

 
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Logwood (Haematoxylum campechianum) is a tree in the legume family
Fabaceae

Fabaceae or Leguminosae is a large and economically important family of flowering plants, which is commonly known as the legume family, pea family, bean family or pulse family....
 that has been and to a lesser extent remains of great economic importance. It it is native to southern Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 and northern Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
 and even led to the founding of the modern nation of Belize
Belize

Belize , formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Once part of the Maya civilization, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981....
, which grew from British logging camps of the 17th century. The tree's scientific name means "bloodwood" (haima being Greek for blood and xulon for wood).






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Logwood (Haematoxylum campechianum) is a tree in the legume family
Fabaceae

Fabaceae or Leguminosae is a large and economically important family of flowering plants, which is commonly known as the legume family, pea family, bean family or pulse family....
 that has been and to a lesser extent remains of great economic importance. It it is native to southern Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 and northern Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
 and even led to the founding of the modern nation of Belize
Belize

Belize , formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Once part of the Maya civilization, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981....
, which grew from British logging camps of the 17th century. The tree's scientific name means "bloodwood" (haima being Greek for blood and xulon for wood). In fact, the name "logwood" is also used for many other species, such the spiny logwood and white logwood, that are not true logwoods but really belong to the genus xylosma
Xylosma

Xylosma is a genus of between 85-100 species of evergreen shrubs and trees in the willow family, Salicaceae. They are commonly known as brushhollies, xylosmas, or more ambiguously "logwoods"....
.

Uses

Logwood was used for a long time as a natural source of dye
Dye

A dye can generally be described as a colored substance that has an Chemical affinity to the Wiktionary:substrate to which it is being applied....
, and still remains an importance source of haematoxylin
Haematoxylin

Haematoxylin, hematoxylin, Natural Black 1, or C.I. 75290 is extracted from the wood of the logwood tree. When oxidised it forms haematein, a compound with rich blue-purple color, and is used, together with a suitable mordant , to staining cell nuclei prior to examination under a microscope....
, which is used in histology
Histology

Histology is the study of the anatomy of cell and tissue of plants and animals. It is performed by examining a thin slice of tissue under a light microscope or electron microscope....
 for staining. The bark
BARK

BARK was an early Electromechanics. BARK was built using standard phone relays, implementing a 32-bit binary machine and could perform addition in 150 ms and multiplication in 250 ms....
 and leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 are also used in various medical applications. In its time, logwood was considered a versatile dye, and was widely used on textile
Textile

A textile is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by Spinning raw wool fibres, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn....
s but also for paper. The dye's colour depends on the mordant
Mordant

A mordant is a substance used to set dyes on fabrics by forming an insoluble compound with the dye. It may be used for dyeing fabrics, or for intensifying stains in cell or tissue preparations....
 used as well as the pH
PH

pH is a measure of the Acid or Base of a solution. It is defined as the cologarithm of the Activity of dissolved hydrogen ions . Hydrogen ion activity coefficients cannot be measured experimentally, so they are based on theoretical calculations....
. It is reddish in an acidic environments but bluish in alkaline ones.

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