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Henna

Henna (Lawsonia inermis, syn. L. alba) is a flowering plant, the sole species in the genus Lawsonia in the family Lythraceae. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, southern Asia and northern Australasia in semi-arid zones. more...

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Henna is a tall shrub or small tree, 2 – 6 m high. It is glabrous, multibranched with spine tipped branchlets. Leaves are opposite, entire, glabrous, sub sessile, elliptical, and broadly lanceolate (1.5 – 5.0 CM x 0.5 – 2 cm, acuminate, having depressed veins on the dorsal surface. During the onset of precipitation intervals, the plant grows rapidly; putting out new shoots, then growth slows. The leaves gradually yellow and fall during prolonged dry or cool intervals. Henna flowers have four sepals and a 2 mm calyx tube with three mm spread lobes. Petals are obvate, white or red stamens inserted in pairs on the rim of the calyx tube. Ovary is four celled, style up to five mm long and erect. Fruits are small, brownish capsules, four to eight mm in diameter, with 32 to 49 seeds per fruit, and open irregularly into four splits. Lawsone content in leaves is negatively associated with the number of seeds in the fruits

Cultivation and uses

Henna, lawsonia inermis, has a red-orange dye molecule, lawsone. This molecule has an affinity for bonding with protein, and thus has been used to dye skin, hair, fingernails, leather, silk and wool. Henna's indigenous zone is the tropical savannah and tropical arid zone, in latitudes between 15° and 25° N and S from Africa to the western Pacific rim, and produces highest dye content in temperatures between 35 C and 45C. It does not thrive where minimum temperatures are below 11C. Temperatures below 5C will kill the henna plant. The dye molecule, lawsone, is primarily in the leaves, and is in the highest levels in the petioles of the leaf. There are no such plants as black henna or neutral henna: products sold as such may be indigo or cassia, and may contain unlisted dyes and chemicals.

Henna is commercially cultivated in western India, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Morocco and Sudan. Though henna has been used for body art and hair dye since the Bronze Age, henna has had a recent renaissance in body art due to improvements in cultivation, processing, and the diasporas of people from traditional henna using regions.

Henna is the Arabic word for henna, cognate of the Semitic root HNA for Red, and the word for "emotional tenderness", but the earlier known words for henna are KPR and PKR, words in ancient Egyptian medical records, Canaanite and Hebrew texts. In the Bible Song of Songs and Song of Solomon, henna is referred to as Camphire. In the Indian subcontinent, there are many variant words such as mendee Mehndi (or Mehendi/Mehandi) in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Arabic-speaking countries inNorth Africa and the Middle East the Arabic word henna (or a variant such as Kina or hinna) is used.