SAFFLOWER (ultimately from the Arabic safra, yellow)  or BASTARD SAFFRON (Carthamus tinctorius), a plant of the natural order compositae; its flowers form the basis of the safflower dye of commerce . The plant is a native of the East Indies, but is cultivated in Egypt and to some extent in southern Europe . To obtain the dyeing principle—carthamin, C14H14Or—the flowers are first washed to free them from a soluble yellow colouring matter they contain; they are then dried and powdered, and digested in an alkaline solution in which pieces of clean white cotton are immersed . The alkaline solution having been neutralized with weak acetic acid, the cotton is removed and washed in another alkaline solution . When this second solution is neutralized with acid, carthamin in a pure condition is precipitated as a dark red powder . It forms a brilliant but fugitive scarlet dye for silk, but is principally used for preparing toilet rouge .