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Ca' Foscari University of Venice announced that when an international team of researchers first began to analyze 34,000-year-old stone tools found in the Dzudzuana Cave in the foothills of Georgia's Caucasus, they were just hoping to learn something about how they were used. However, as they peered closer, they uncovered incredible evidence of human behavior and complexity dating back tens of thousands of years. The pebble grinding tools contained traces of plant matter and indigotin, the deep blue compound also known as indigo. The results were stunning -- not only was this the first time that indigo has been found...

From woad warriors to cancer-buster 13:09 14 August 2006 Z NewScientist.com news service Phil Cohen The medieval Scottish rebels made famous in the movie Braveheart used dye from the woad plant to paint their faces blue for battle. Now Italian biochemists say this plant could become a promising weapon in the fight against cancer. The researchers have demonstrated that under the right growth conditions woad (Isatis tinctoria) produces astonishing amounts of glucobrassicin (GBS), a biochemical which may account for some of the cancer-fighting properties of related plants, such as broccoli. “It can make more than 60 times the amount found...

Boudicca's warpaint puts farmer on the woad to recovery By Sarah Lonsdale (Filed: 28/09/2003) Woad, the plant whose deep blue pigment was used as a warpaint by the ancient Britons to frighten their enemies, is to be farmed commercially in Britain for the first time in 500 years. Large-scale production of woad, which was most famously used by the warrior queen Boudicca, finally died out in the 16th century when cheaper dyes imported from India made it uneconomic. Now, however, farming of the spinach-like plant, which produces colours ranging from pale blue to indigo, is to be resumed by a...