Why was woad hurtful to many?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

April 10, 2003

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John Gerard wrote, "Garden Woad hath long leaves of a blewish greene colour. The stalk groweth two cubits high....There is a wilde kinde of Woad, very like unto the former...the stalke is tenderer, smaller and browner, and the leaves...narrower; otherwise there is no difference betwixt them." (The Herbal or General Historie of Plants, 1633 edition)

The Milkmaid, C. 1656
Jan Vermeer
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Raised for its blue dye, woad (Isatis tinctoria Linnaeus) cultivation was its own industry. In A Modern Herbal (1931), Mrs. Grieve wrote, "The cultivation of Woad was formerly carried on by people who devoted themselves entirely to it, and as crops of the plant are not successful for more than two years on the same piece of land, they never stayed long in one place, but hiring land in various districts, led a wandering life with their families and gained their living by their crops."

Woad, like other plants in the Brassicaceae, or mustard family, is a heavy feeder, taking large amounts of nutrients from the soil. With the leaves removed for dye production, most of the nutrients left the land where the plants were cultivated.

Brassicas also produce glucosinolates, the chemicals that give these plants their spicy taste. For a proposed study, Kirby Johnson stated "glucosinolates...are converted to isothiocyanates that, in turn, are highly biocidal to a range of organisms, including fungi, bacteria, nematodes, insects, and germinating seeds." ("Efficacy of mustard biofumigants for management of weeds and Fusarium wilt in spinach seed crops in western Washington", Kirby Johnson, 2002)

Woad took nutrients and left behind an allelopathic agent (growth suppressor) making the land poor for many other crops the following year. Gerard even noticed woad did not grow well following where it had been a crop. "The tame or garden Woad groweth in fertile fields, where it is sowne: the wilde kind growes where the tame kinde hath been sowne." He added this comment, "If serveth well to dye and colour cloath, profitable to some few; and hurtfull to many."

With people more conscious of problems with artificial dyes, woad production is coming back into favor. BioMatNet in conjunction with CPL Scientific Publishing Services has an excellent page on woad written by Katy Hall. To learn more about woad, click on the link:

http://www.nf-2000.org/secure/Crops/F594.htm

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