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Ethnolichenology is the study of the relationship between lichens and people. Lichens have and are being used for many different purposes by human cultures on every continent, with the possible exception of Australia. The most common human use of lichens is for dye, but they are also frequently used for medicine and food. Different human cultures across the world have also found many other more novel uses for lichens. ==Lichens for dye== Lichens are a common source of natural dyes. The lichen dye is usually extracted by either boiling water or ammonia fermentation. Although usually called ammonia fermentation, this method is not actually a fermentation and involves letting the lichen steep in ammonia (traditionally urine) for at least two to three weeks. In North America the most significant lichen dye is ''Letharia vulpina''. Indigenous people through most of this lichen's range in North America traditionally make a yellow dye from this lichen by boiling it in water. Historically, traditional dyes in Scotland were very important. Brown lichen dyes (called crottle) and red lichen dyes (called corkir) were used extensively to produce tartans. Purple dyes from lichens were historically very important throughout Europe from the 15th to 17th centuries. They were generally extracted from ''Roccella'' spp. lichens imported from the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Madagascar, or India. These lichens, and the dye extracted from them, are called orchil (variants archil, orchilla). The same dye was also produced from ''Ochrolechia'' spp. lichens in Britain and was called cudbear. Both ''Roccella'' spp. and ''Ochrolechia'' spp. contain the lichen substance orcin, which converts into the purple dye orcein in the ammonia fermentation process. Litmus, a water-soluble pH indicator dye mixture, is also extracted from ''Roccella'' species. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ethnolichenology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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