ARNATTO. 157 
172. ARNATTO, or ANNOTTA, is a red dyeing drug, 
generally imported in lumps wrapped up in leaves, and pro- 
duced from the pulp of the seed-vessels of a shrub (Bixa orel- 
lana) which grows spontaneously in the East and West Indies. 
This shrub is usually seven or eight feet high, and has heart- 
shaped and pointed leaves. The flowers, which have each ten 
large peach-coloured petals, appear in loose clusters at the ends 
of the branches, and produce oblong and somewhat hairy pods. 
The seed-vessels of the arnatto shrub are, in ap- 
pearance, somewhat like those of the chesnut (235). 
They each contain from thirty to forty seeds, enveloped 
in a kind of pulp (of red colour and unpleasant smell), 
which is not much unlike the paint called red lead, 
when mixed with oil. In the West Indies the method 
of extracting the pulp, and preparing it for sale, is to 
boil it, and the seeds which are mixed with it, in clear 
water, until the latter are perfectly extricated. They 
are then taken out, and the pulp is allowed to subside 
to the bottom of the water ; this is drawn off, and the 
sediment is distributed into shallow vessels, and gradu- 
ally dried in the shade until it is sufficiently hard to be 
worked into lumps or masses for sale. 
Arnatto, though made in the West Indies, is an ob- 
ject of no great commercial importance ; the demand 
for it not being sufficient to give much encouragement 
to its culture. It is now chiefly prepared by the Spa- 
niards in South America, and for the purpose princi- 
pally of mixing with chocolate, to which, in their 
opinion, it gives a pleasing colour and great medicinal 
virtue, as well as an improved flavour. The chief 
consumption of arnatto in England depends upon 
painters and dyers ; and it is supposed that Scott's 
nankeen dye is nothing but arnatto dissolved in alkaline 
ley. This drug is sometimes used by the Dutch farmers 
to give a rich colour to butter ; and the double Glou- 
cester and several other kinds of cheese are coloured 
with it. Poor people occasionally use it instead of 
saffron. 
