[Histonet] Carmine

[John Kiernan]

Thanks, Peggy for drawing attention to the "Perfect Red" book. Must check it out!  
Carmine in histology wasn't always just mucicarmine. 
For many years carmine was the only stain. Corti used it to find the sensory organ for hearing in the cochlea (the dye was an aid to microdissection), and much of descriptive embryology comes from carmine-stained serial sections. The preparations keep for ever, with red nuclei and pink cytoplasm. There are many general-purpose carmine staining methods, and a few survive as red nuclear counterstains.  
 
John Kiernan 
Anatomy, UWO 
London, Canada 
= = = 
On 23/10/11, Lee & Peggy Wenk <lpwenk <@t> sbcglobal.net> wrote: 

> 
> Just for fun: Check to see if your Sunday comic section carries Jump Start. Check out today’s 10/23/11 strip.
> 
> Jump Start, a comic strip about a couple (policeman and nurse) and their kids, has the oldest girl wanting to be a cochineal insect for Halloween – which is where histology gets carmine dye for the mucicarmine stain.
> http://www.gocomics.com/jumpstart/2011/10/23
> 
> If you want to read a fascinating book about the the role of carmine in the exploration of the America’s, enslaving the people of Central and South America, pirates stealing ships loaded with the dye, spying, politics, government and religion, and the “unions” of the dyeing industry back then – find or buy a copy of “A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire” by Amy Butler Greenfield, 2006.
> 
> If you want a more abbreviated version, Anatech’s newsletter ”The Innovator” had an article about carmine in their Winter 2007 issue – all about the history, and about why the quality of Mucicarmine has gone downhill in the past few years. (And also towards the end of the newsletter - what Anatech has done to try to improve the quality of the carmine. The article includes promoting their version of mucicarmine, so just a head’s up – this is their newsletter to promote their products. But they do a great job at educating in general, too. So I enjoy reading and learning from their newsletters. Great photos of what stains SHOULD look like.)
> http://www.anatechltdusa.com/Innovators/Innovator12_06.pdf
> 
> No – I don’t get any money talking about the comic strip, the book or Anatech. I just think it’s neat to read about the history of dyes. And really great to to read about cochineal in a Sunday comic strip!
> 
> Peggy A. Wenk, HTL(ASCP)SLS
> Beaumont Hospital
> Royal Oak, MI 48073
> 
> (The opinions expressed are my own.)
> _______________________________________________
> Histonet mailing list
> Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
> 
>