Biotech Studies 1998, Vol 7, Num, 1     (Pages: 038-043)

THE RESEARCH ON PLANT PERFORMANCE OF WOAD (Isatis tinctoria L) UNDER THE ÇUKUROVA CONDITIONS

Sezen TANSI

1 Çukurova Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi, Tarla Bitkileri Bölümü, Adana - Isatis tinctoria is a member of the Cruciferae. Woad (Isatis tinctoria) is a hardy biennial plant native to Turkey. It is a source of the blue dye chemical, indigotin. It produces a substance in its leaves called isatan B which, when exposed to the air, forms blue. Isatan B can easily be removed from the leaves by boiling them in water and indigo formed by making an alkaline solution, a process used by home dyers today.

In this research, morphological and agricultural characteristics of Isatis tinctoria were studied under Çukurova Conditions such as plant height, number of stem, 1000 seed weight, seed weight per plant, the number of pedicel, the number of seed per plant, fruit weight per plant, the number of fruit per plant leaf length, and wide, fruit length and wide. Keywords : Isatis tinctoria; woad; isatan; indigotin