Catechu
A brown plant extract used as a dye, tannin, and preservative
No single value: Catechu is a material, and its colour varies. The background shows its family, brown.
Catechu is a plant extract mainly used as a brown dye and tanning agent. Known as cutch, it colours wool, silk, and cotton yellowish-brown, and helps preserve fishing nets and sails. It is also used in traditional medicines and in spice mixtures for breath-freshening.
- Used as a brown dye for wool, silk, and cotton
- Preserves fishing nets and sails
- High in natural vegetable tannins
- Also used in breath-freshening spice mixtures
- Gave its name to catechin and catechol chemicals
What colour is Catechu?
Catechu is a brown colouring substance taken from plants, known as cutch when used as a dye. It produces a yellowish-brown colour on wool, silk, and cotton, and can shift to grey-brown or olive-brown when used with different mordants (chemicals that help fix dyes). Catechu is also valued for its astringent properties, which means it can make tissues contract and is used in medicine and food.
Where does Catechu come from?
The extract called catechu has been used since ancient times, especially in South Asia. Its name is linked to the chemical families catechin and catechol, which were first derived from it. Catechu has also been called 'Japanese Earth' or 'Japanese Dirt', and this led to the naming of 'Japanic acid'.
How is Catechu made?
Catechu is obtained from certain plants, though the main source is not named in the sources here. Related extracts include white cutch or gambier, from Uncaria gambir, and palm-catechu from the seeds of Areca catechu. The extract is high in vegetable tannins, which give it its astringent and preservative qualities.
Where Catechu is used
Catechu is used as a brown dye for textiles, especially wool, silk, and cotton. It is also used to tan animal hides and to preserve fishing nets and sails. In food, it appears in spice mixtures for breath-freshening, such as in France, Italy, and South Asian paan. Black catechu has even been used to dye vodka black. White cutch and palm-catechu have similar uses.
Brown around the world
What the brown family means from country to country.
Brown is the colour of Nazism in German political speech, after the brown shirts of the party's stormtroopers. To call a view "brown" is to call it far right.
Politics and protestDanger and warningShameSource: SturmabteilungMasi is bark cloth beaten from paper mulberry and printed in brown and black. It is worn at weddings and funerals and given in ceremonial exchanges.
Sacred and holyWeddings and marriageSource: Tapa clothKuntunkuni is a dark brown mourning cloth of the Asante, dyed with tree bark. Adinkra cloth, stamped with symbols, was first made on such dark grounds for funerals.
Mourning and deathSadnessSource: Adinkra symbolsThe batik of the Javanese courts at Yogyakarta and Surakarta is dyed in soga brown with indigo and cream. Some court patterns were once reserved for the royal family.
Royalty and powerPrideSource: BatikBogolanfini, or mud cloth, is cotton painted with fermented river mud in browns, black and white. Hunters wear it for protection, and women after childbirth.
Protection and healingSacred and holySource: B貌g貌lanfiniShades and relatives of Catechu
White cutch, also called gambier, is a related extract with the same uses. Palm-catechu comes from Areca catechu seeds. With iron mordant, cutch gives grey-browns; with copper, olive-browns. Catechu is sometimes confused with these related extracts, but they all serve similar purposes.
Questions people ask about Catechu
What colour does catechu produce?
Catechu, also called cutch, dyes wool, silk, and cotton a yellowish-brown. With iron or copper mordants, it can produce grey-brown or olive-brown shades.
Where does the name catechu come from?
Catechu gave its name to the chemical families catechin and catechol, which were first derived from it. It has also been called 'Japanese Earth' or 'Japanese Dirt'.
What is catechu used for?
Catechu is used as a brown dye, in tanning animal hides, preserving fishing nets and sails, and in food and medicine as an astringent and breath-freshening ingredient.
Are there different types of catechu?
Yes. White cutch (gambier) and palm-catechu are related extracts from different plants, but are used in similar ways for dyeing and tanning.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Catechu", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. The swatch is an approximation: named colours are not fixed standards, and every screen shows them a little differently. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-03.
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