This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double-wall silverfoil pack.

Batschia canescens is the American Borage, called Hairy Puccoon, closely related to the European Borage Alkanna tinctoria (Anchusa tinctoria), and used the same way.

Alkanet root is a great source of natural color, from the roots of the plant also called Anchusa tinctoria. The name Anchusa is derived from the Greek anchousa-paint, from the use of the root as a dye. Also known as Lithospermum tinctorium, Dyer's Bugloss and Spanish Bugloss. Most often used for soap, the color is extracted from the root by infusing in oil, then using the oil in soap. Can be infused in oils to color lotions as well.

Gives burgundies and purples in alkaline. Alkanet Root will color a superfatted soap which is less alkanine, a nice mauve to purple, while the same root will color soap with a zero lye discount, a pleasant blue. Used as a skin conditioning agent. Also used as an ingredient in special hair care preparations.

Alkanet root powder can be used to give you a lovely pinky purple color. Little bits can be added to your soap at trace, but if you are one of those people who don't like to wash with herbs, you can make an infusion with some of your oils and filter the bits out. Alkanet it an excellent PH indicator. As your soap cures you can actually see the color turn from a slightly gray to an almost pinky purple.

Grieve's classic, 'A Modern Herbal':

''Alkanet (A. tinctoria) is cultivated in Central and Southern Europe for its dye, which is readily extracted by oils and spirit of wine. It is employed in pharmacy to give a red colour to salves, etc., and in staining wood in imitation of rosewood, or mahogany. This is done by rubbing it with oil in which the Alkanet root has been soaked. About 8 to 10 tons were annually imported from France and Germany. The plant is sometimes also cultivated in Britan, but by far the greater portion of the Alkanet used here is imported either from the Levant or from the neighbourhood of Montpellier, in France.''

''Though Alkanet imparts a fine deep red colour to oily substances and to spirit of wine, it tinges water with a dull brownish hue. Wax tinged with Alkanet, and applied to the surface of warm marble, stains it flesh-colour and sinks deep into the stone. It is also used in colouring spurious 'port-wine,' for which purpose it is perfectly harmless.''

U.S. Dispensatory 1918:

''Alkanet, Anchusae Radix. Alkanna Root, Alkanet Root; Orcanette, Fr. Spanish Bugloss. Alkannawurzel, G.—This is the root of Alkanna tinctoria L., or dyers' alkanet, an herbaceous perennial plant, of the Fam. Boraginaceae, growing in the Grecian Archipelago and the south of Europe, where it is cultivated. See E. M. Holmes, P. J., 1897, p. 61. For an account of Syrian alkanet and allied plants, see Proc. A. Ph. A., 1896, 565. ''

''Alkanet, as found in commerce, is in pieces 7 to 10 cm. long, and from 5 to 15 mm. thick, somewhat twisted, consisting of a dark-red, easily separable bark, and an internal ligneous portion, which is reddish externally, whitish near the center, and composed of numerous distinct, slender, cohering fibers. As it comes to us it is usually much decayed internally, very light, and of a loose, almost spongy texture. The fresh root has a faint odor, and a bitterish, astringent taste; but when dried it is nearly inodorous and insipid.''

''Its coloring principle, which abounds mostly in the cortical part, is soluble in alcohol, ether, and the oils, to which it imparts a deep red color, but is insoluble in water. It may be obtained by first exhausting the root with water, and then treating it with a weak solution of potassium or sodium carbonate, from which the coloring principle may be precipitated by an acid. According to Pelletier, by whom it was discovered, it possesses acid properties, forming with the alkalies and earths neutral compounds, which are of a blue color, and soluble in alcohol and ether. ''

''Its weak acid character resembles that of alizarin, to which it is chemically related, as when distilled with zinc dust it yields methyl-anthracene. It has also received the names of anchusin and alkannin. The anchusin has been extracted and studied by C. J. S. Thompson. (A. J. P., 1886, 409.) He finds it to vary in amount between 5.25 and 6.02 per cent. ''

''It is red, resin-like, insoluble in water, soluble in oils, alcohol, chloroform, and ether, and with a rich deep blue color in alkali hydroxides, the color changing again to crimson on addition of an acid. According to A. Gawalowski, the red coloring matter of alkanet root consists of two distinct bodies, the one turning blue, the other green by the action of alkalies. The first of these, alkannic acid, is extracted by ether and alcohol. The second, anchusic acid, is obtained by extraction with benzene. Both form characteristic colored salts. (Ph. Ztg., 1902, 817.) ''

''Alkanet is somewhat astringent, and was formerly used in several diseases; but it is now employed exclusively for coloring oils, ointments, and plasters, which are beautifully reddened by one-fortieth of their weight of the root. The best way to use it with this object in view is to suspend the alkanet, after tying it in a piece of flannel, in the melted fat. A fine color is obtained by previously washing the alkanet with water and then thoroughly drying it before suspending it in the fat or oil. It is said also to be used in the preparation of spurious port wine. The Oleum Hypericum (more), formerly much used under that title or the name Red Oil, consisted of fixed oil colored with alkanet.''