High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of colouring matters in historical garments from the Holy Mountain of Athos

This work is probably the first attempt to identify the organic colouring materials contained in post-Byzantine textiles, from the Holy Mountain of Athos. Samples extracted from seven ecclesiastical garments (15th–19th century) are investigated by high performance liquid chromatography with UV-Vis diode array detection. The detection limits for alizarin, purpurin, carminic acid, laccaic acid A, luteolin, apigenin, genistein, fisetin, sulfuretin, ellagic acid, indigotin and indirubin are found to be within 0.002–0.029 μg mL⁻¹. The following organic dyes are identified in the extracts: dyer’s broom (Genista tinctoria L.), young fustic (Cotinus coggygria Scop.), an indigoid dye source either indigo (Indigofera species) or woad (Isatis tinctoria L.), madder, cochineal and lac dye (Kerria lacca Kerr). Furthermore, the identification of a brazilein derivative indicates the presence of a Caesalpinia dye source in the samples. Correspondence: Ioannis Karapanagiotis, Ormylia Art Diagnosis Center, Sacred Convent of the Annunciation, Ormylia, GR-63071 Chalkidiki, Greece