A Taste of Red: The Cochineal Insect.

by Forrest M. Mims III

The prickly pear cactus (genus Opuntia) is found throughout the Southwest and Mexico. Sometimes the pads of a prickly pear are decorated with cottony tufts of white scattered among the long thorns.

These curious objects are clusters of waxy filaments secreted by a tiny insect only a few millimeters long. This is the cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus), and you may be much more familiar with it than you ever suspected.

For centuries, the Aztecs and other inhabitants of Mexico produced textiles dyed with brilliant shades of scarlet red. The dye came from dried cochineal insects harvested from prickly pear cactus farms and fields.

When the Spanish occupied Mexico, they were almost as impressed by the red dye of the Aztecs as by their gold and silver. A book could be written about what happened next.

And that’s what Amy Butler Greenfield has done. Her book “A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire” (HarperCollins 2005) describes the remarkable history of how the scarlet carmine dye extracted from the tiny cochineal insect entered the world’s economy and how it is still used today.

The scarlet dye extracted from the cochineal insect found a ready market in Europe. In 1587 Spanish ships carried 60,000 kg (65 tons) of the powdered dye across the Atlantic.

Because 0.45 kg (1 pound) of carmine dye requires some 70,000 insects, the shipments in 1587 alone required harvesting more than nine billion cochineal insects!

The Spanish refused to share the secret behind the source of the red dye trade for some 250 years, and this gave them significant advantages in textile production.

According to various sources, their monopoly was broken in 1777 when a French naturalist smuggled some cactus pads with attached cochineal insects to Haiti. Soon carmine dye was being produced in various countries around the world.

A century ago, brilliant dyes made from coal tar ended the carmine monopoly. But the dye is still in use in traditional ways that might surprise you. For carmine dye is also known as Red Dye Number 4, a dye approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a coloring agent for food, cosmetics and drugs.

Over the years, Red Dye Number 4 has been used to color lipstick and other cosmetics. It has also been used in soft drinks, yogurt, candy, ice cream, yogurt, and various other foods.

In short, cactus bug juice is as American as tomatoes, potatoes, chili, squash, corn and chocolate.

A video of a carmine production facility in Chile is here.

Forrest M. Mims III and his science are featured online at www.forrestmims.org and www.sunandsky.org.