Carmine

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The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith See book keywords and concepts

Many strawberry yogurts, for example, get their color from carmine, which is also found in many frozen fruit bars, candies, fruit fillings, and juice drinks, as well as cosmetics like lipstick and eye shadow. carmine is a food dye derived from ground-up insects that produce the pigment-containing carminic acid. (As with many food additives, carmine FACT The American flavor industry has annual revenues of about $1.4 billion. Approximately 10,000 new processed food products are introduced every year in the United States. Almost all of them require flavor additives.

Ground up beetles found in yogurt -- carmine serves as insect-based food coloring ingredient Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES TO carmine? Yes. One company, Canandaigua Wine, introduced a substitute product derived from grape skins. According to the Canandaigua website, this new product has no allergic reactions, has better pH resistance (that's really important to food manufacturers), and has a lower "gross" factor. Nobody gets the shivers reading, "colored with grape skin extract" on the label. There's also another bonus: the color stands up under fluorescent lighting. carmine (and most other food colorings) tend to fade under fluorescent lights, reducing their shelf life.

And although there are no studies that demonstrate health benefits of carmine, I wouldn't be surprised to hear of some in the coming years. ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES TO carmine? Yes. One company, Canandaigua Wine, introduced a substitute product derived from grape skins. According to the Canandaigua website, this new product has no allergic reactions, has better pH resistance (that's really important to food manufacturers), and has a lower "gross" factor. Nobody gets the shivers reading, "colored with grape skin extract" on the label.

The surprising answer is that, based on the health-enhancing properties of other pigmentation chemicals from the animal world (such as astaxanthin found in crustaceans and salmon -- it's 500 times stronger than vitamin E as an antioxidant), carmine may very well be good for you. It's certainly better for you than any synthetic color, such as FD&C No. 40, which is derived from coal tar. Would you rather be eating a pigment created by insects, or one derived through the refining of fossil fuels? Personally, I'd rather eat the insect pigment.

Most carmine used in the United States is imported from Peru and the Canary Islands. They are harvested as follows (Quoted from: www2.labs.agilent.com/botany/cacti_etc/html/news7.html): "The insects are carefully brushed from the cacti... and placed into bags. The bags are taken to the production plant and there, the insects are then killed by immersion in hot water or by exposure to sunlight, steam or the heat of an oven. It is to be noted that the variance in appearance of commercial cochineal is caused by the different methods used during this process.

Technically speaking, you could almost call carmine a "natural" product. Keep your eyes open for yogurt with a label that reads, "colored with all-natural, organic ground-up red beetles from Peru!

There's also another bonus: the color stands up under fluorescent lighting. carmine (and most other food colorings) tend to fade under fluorescent lights, reducing their shelf life. Plus, we all know just how powerful grape skins are at lowering LDL cholesterol and promoting cardiovascular health. A food coloring ingredient made from grape skins would, if widely consumed, help protect the health of the public. It would probably give you all the health benefits of drinking wine, but without the alcohol. You can learn more at http://www.cwine.com/ournews/MegaNatural.

PDR for Herbal Medicines, Fourth Edition Thomson Healthcare, Inc. See book keywords and concepts

The corolla is usually carmine red, occasionally white. The stamens and styles are exserted. The nutlet is ovoid, 1.5 to 2 cm long, smooth, finely reticulate and has a large, circular, attaching surface. Leaves, Stem, and Root: The plant is a subshrub with a shortlived main root from which grow long-reaching, branched, thin woody roots and a stem-producing runner. The stems are usually erect and branched. The older branches are decumbent; the younger ones erect, tough, round, and lanate. The branches are occasionally covered in glandular hairs, which are often red-violet.

Soy cheese products deceive consumers, violate vegans Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Even yogurt, you may recall, is colored with an insect-derived natural coloring called carmine, which is made from ground-up, red Cochineal beetles frequently imported from the Canary Islands. But where carmine is probably good for you, I don't think casein is. Milk proteins are not something that human beings should be consuming on a regular basis, especially not adult human beings.

PDR for Herbal Medicines, Fourth Edition Thomson Healthcare, Inc. See book keywords and concepts

The fruit is a group of small, fleshy, oblong carmine berries with 1 or 2 hard, black, glossy seeds. The fruit is similar to the raspberry but is not edible. Leaves, Stem, and Root: The plant is a low herbaceous perennial about 30 cm high. It has a horizontal bright yellow, knotty, twisted rhizome about 0.6 to 1.8 cm thick out of which the root fibers grow. It is folded longitudinally and encircled by old leaf scars. The fracture is short and shows a dark, yellow surface, thick bark, large pith and broad medullary rays.

How food manufacturers trick consumers with deceptive ingredients lists Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Of course, nobody would eat strawberry yogurt if the ingredients listed, "Insect-based red food coloring" on the label, so instead, they just call it "carmine." Similarly, yeast extract sounds like a perfect safe food ingredient, too, but it's actually a trick used to hide monosodium glutamate (MSG, a chemical taste enhancer used to excite the flavors of overly-processed foods) without having to list MSG on the label. Lots of ingredients contain hidden MSG, and I've written extensively about them on this site. Virtually all hydrolyzed or autolyzed ingredients contain some amount of hidden MSG.

PDR for Herbal Medicines, Fourth Edition Thomson Healthcare, Inc. See book keywords and concepts

Studies of the effects of essential oils isolated from 14 species of Labiatae on the carmine spider mite Tetranychus cinnabarinus. Phytoparasitica; 14(2): 137-142. 1986 Meyer A. Der Duft des Monats: Lavendel. In: DAZ; 133(40)3667. 1993 Mukherjee BD, Trenkle RW. J Agric Food Chem; 21:298. 1973' Muzzarelli L, Force M, Sebold M. Aromatherapy and reducing preprocedural anxiety: A controlled prospective study. Gastroenterol Nurs; 29(6): 466-471. 2006 Perrucci S, Cioni PL, Flamini G et al. Acaricidal agents of natural origin against Psoroptes funiculi. Parassitologia (Rome); 36(3):269-271.

Flower and Fruit: The flowers are carmine red with white-' edged spots on the inside. The flowers appear in long hanging racemes. They have 5 free, short-tipped sepals. The corolla is about 4 cm long, campanulate, bilabiate with an obtuse upper lip and an ovate tip on the lower lip. The flower is glabrous on the outside and has a white awn on the inside. There are 2 long and 2 short stamens, and 1 superior ovary. The fruit is a doublevalved, ovate, glandular, villous capsule. Leaves, Stem, and Root: The plant is a biennial with a branched tap root. In the first year it develops a leaf rosette.

The petals are light carmine to fleshy red, occasionally yellowish-white or pure white. The fruit is a pod, which is ovate, single-seeded and thin-skinned. The seed is oblong-ovate, yellow to brownish or violet. Leaves, Stem, and Root: The plant is a perennial herb, 15 to 40 cm high with a bushy rhizome and a basal leaf rosette. An erect, angular stem grows from the rhizome. The rhizome is covered in alternate, trifoliate, elliptical or qvate leaves, which have a characteristic arrow-shaped white spot on the upper surface.

PDR for Herbal Medicines Joerg Gruenwald, Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

Flower and Fruit: The flowers are carmine red with white-edged spots on the inside. The flowers appear in long hanging racemes. They have 5 free, short-tipped sepals. The corolla is about 4 cm long, campanulate, bilabiate with an obtuse upper lip and an ovate tip on the lower lip. The flower is glabrous on the outside and has a white awn on the inside. There are 2 long and 2 short stamens and 1 superior ovary. The fruit is a 2-valved, ovate, glandular villous capsule. Leaves, Stem and Root: The plant is a biennial with a branched tap root. In the first year it develops a leaf rosette.

The receptacle is 2 cm long, ovate, globular or clavate, carmine red when ripe. The nutlets are ovate, 0.8 to 1.5 mm long, brown and matte. Leaves, Stem and Root: The perennial, herbaceous plant grows from 20 to 30 cm high. The rhizome is cylindrical, horizontal or crooked and thickly covered with the residual died off leaves and stipules. Long runners grow from the axils of the basal leaves. The stem is erect and is slightly longer than the basal leaves. The cauline leaves are trifoliate and roughly serrate from the first quarter upwards.

Flower and Fruit: The inflorescences are compound spikes of carmine red flowers, 4 to 8 mm in diameter. Leaves, Stem and Root: The plant is a perennial and has an erect, leafy stem up 2 m. The leaves are opposite, up to 30 cm long and 1 cm wide. The rhizome is 1 cm or more in diameter. It is gnarled with several cup-shaped scars. The rhizome is brownish and slightly wrinkled on the outside. Inside it is whitish with dark gray spots. Characteristics: The root is very solid. The taste is bitter and the odor is faintly aromatic, resembling cedar. Habitat: U.S. cultivated in parts of Europe.

The female flowers are in thinner catkins with carmine stigmas. The seeds ripen in May or June, are very small and have a white lanate tuft of hair. Leaves, Stem and Root: The tree may grow up to 30 m in height. The bark is initially yellow brown and later becomes black-gray and is fissured. The leaf buds are sticky. The leaves are almost circular with a dark green upper surface and a light gray-green under surface. They are dentate or lobed with obtuse teeth, initially silky-haired, later glabrous. The petioles are long, thin and compressed at the sides.

The corolla is usually carmine red, occasionally white. The stamens and styles are exserted. The nutlet is ovoid, 1.5 to 2 cm long, smooth, finely reticulate and has a large, circular, attaching surface. Leaves, Stem and Root: The plant is a subshrub with a shortlived main root from which grow long-reaching, branched, thin woody roots and a stem-producing runner. The stems are usually erect and branched. The older branches are decumbent, the younger ones erect, tough, round and lanate. The branches are occasionally covered in glandular hairs, often red-violet.

The petals are light carmine to fleshy red, occasionally yellowish-white or pure white. The fmit is a pod, which is ovate, 1-seeded and thin-skinned. The seed is oblong-ovate, yellow to brownish or violet. Leaves, Stem and Root: The plant is a perennial herb, 15 to 40 cm high with a bushy rhizome and a basal leaf rosette. An erect, angular stem grows from the rhizome. The rhizome is covered in alternate, trifoliate, elliptical or ovate leaves, which have a characteristic arrow-shaped white spot on the upper surface.

Anti-Aging Manual: The Encyclopedia of Natural Health Joseph E. Mario See book keywords and concepts

The Only Herbal Skin Freshener (Genesis Herbal Products) with Rosewater, carmine extract, Annatto extract, and Citric acid. Rachel Perry's Peach & Papaya Facial Scrub with pH-balanced Papaya extract, Peach kernel oil, Spanish Juniper, Belgian Chamomile, Clary Sage, Evening Primrose oil, Mint, Arnica, and Geranium.

Food Plants of the World: An illustrated guide Ben-Erik van Wyk See book keywords and concepts

It is the host plant of cochineal, a type of mealy bug that produces a valuable red vegetable dye known as carmine (carminic acid). Immature young stems are called nopales or nopalitos and are sold as vegetables or pickles. Origin & history Indigenous to Mexico and an important food source since prehistoric times. It spread around the world in post-Columbian times, sometimes becoming troublesome weeds. Today, prickly pears are grown on a commercial scale in various countries, including Australia, South Africa and the USA. Parts used Ripe fruits.

Soy cheese products deceive consumers, violate vegans Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

But where carmine is probably good for you, I don't think casein is. Milk proteins are not something that human beings should be consuming on a regular basis, especially not adult human beings. Think about it -- if adults of the human species were supposed to be consuming cow's milk, or casein protein, then this protein would be present in much greater quantities in human breast milk, and we would all continue nursing as adults. And yet that's not the case -- adults are supposed to stop drinking mother's milk.

PDR for Herbal Medicines, Fourth Edition Thomson Healthcare, Inc. See book keywords and concepts

Tetranychus cinnabari-nus (Mansour et al, 1986). Antineoplastic Effects: The active antineoplastic agents in lavender oil are thought to be attributed to monoterpenes such as d-limonene and perillyl alcohol (Fetrow & Avila, 1999). Perillyl alcohol is hydrogenated d-limonene; limonene has antitumor activity against rodent mammary, liver, lung, pancreatic, stomach, prostate, and skin (Jirtle et al, 1993; Stayrook et al, 1997). Central Nervous System Effects: Lavender oil is a sedative and hypnotic for humans and animals.

If It's Not Food, Don't Eat It! The No-nonsense Guide to an Eating-for-Health Lifestyle Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C. See book keywords and concepts

A natural red coloring, cochineal (and its close relative carmine), causes life-threatening reactions. Dyes can cause hyperactivity in sensitive children. Michael Jacobson CSPI which are absorbed through the skin), contain chemical additives that have been linked to numerous health problems. Children are especially at risk due to the smaller, more sensitive nature of their developing bodies, and the fact that most processed and junk foods geared to the younger set are loaded with artificial colorings, flavorings, and preservatives. In the early 1970's, Dr.

The ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs Mark Blumenthal See book keywords and concepts

Other components: lactose monohydrate, cellulose, highly dispersive silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate, castor oil, Macrogol 6000, Hypromellose, saccharose, talcum, gelatin, Povidon K25, carnauba wax, bleached wax, yellow quinoline El04, indigo carmine El32. Kwai®N LI 111: Lichtwer Pharma AG. One tablet contains 100 mg dried powder from Allium sativum (garlic bulb) standardized to contain 1.3% allicin (yielding 0.6% allicin).

Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives: A Consumer's Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients Vitamin E Ruth Winter See book keywords and concepts

A crimson pigment derived from a Mexican and Central American species of a scaly female insect that feeds on various cacti. carmine and Cochineal extracts are permanently listed, but cochineal alone is not authorized for use. The colorings are used in red applesauce, confections, baked goods, meats, and spices. Cochineal was involved in an outbreak of salmonellosis (an intestinal infection) that killed one infant in a Boston hospital and made twenty-two patients seriously ill. carmine, used in the diagnostic solution to test the digestive organs, was found to be the infecting agent.

Nontoxic, Natural and Earthwise Debra Lynn Dadd See book keywords and concepts

Tint to desired shade with carmine, beet juice, or berry juice, or leave it clear. Pour into small jars and cool. • Lip Color. Rub a piece of raw beet over your lips and cover with a clear gloss, if desired. • Blusher. Rub a piece of raw beet over skin until desired shade is reached. This works best if beet color is applied to bare skin and powder is applied on top. • Face Powder. In a dry skillet, brown oat flour, cornstarch, rice flour, or white clay to desired shade. Store in a tighly covered jar and apply with a cotton ball.

The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications Christian Ratsch See book keywords and concepts

He sees fantastic landscapes dipped in orange, red, carmine, or scarlet. The round house, shaken by spasms, bends grotesquely. All at once a tornado of blood rises and floods everything, beings and things. Strange and horrifying people appear and dissolve again." Jacques Lizot Im Kreis der Fever [In the Circle of Fire] (1982,118) 459 2-CB (4-bromo-2,5dimethoxyphencthylamine), which produces effects somewhere between those of mescaline and MDMA, was discovered by Alexander Shulgin (cf. Shulgin and Shulgin 1991, 503 ff.). produced from various species of Virola.

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