Linum linse (Linum usitatissimum) is a herb. She is soft and slender with a delicate figure of 30~120 cm, with slender stems and lanceolate leaves, and light blue-purple, slightly shiny flowers that cater to modern people's aesthetics. If you see her in the flower bed, you will definitely be impressed by her fresh and delicate face, and you may even mistakenly think that this is a kind of ornamental flower that has only appeared in recent years. If this is true, it would be wrong. People should not look at their appearance, and so do plants. Never underestimate the application potential of any plant because of the high appearance of flowers. In fact, flax is a plant friend who has been with human beings for a long time. Her contribution to human society is all-round. Its ornamental value is insignificant in the face of the titles "oil crop" and "fiber crop".
Borrow a common saying to describe her, "can go to the hall and go to the kitchen."
▼ Flax flowers and plant paintings｜The left picture comes from PPBC, the right picture comes from Wikipedia
▼ Flax in the flower bed｜Yin Qian Photo:
Linen and Oil painting art
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The existence of flax has made the oil painting art of the West for more than 500 years, making the oil painting works above the museum halls still shine brightly after a hundred years. Line cloth is a common material for making oil painting canvas. The first canvas made of linen can be traced back to around 1410. A Frenchman accidentally discovered that linen is a very ideal base material for oil paintings. Before that, people could only paint on bulky wooden boards. The wooden boards were prone to moisture, cracking or deformation. If you want to preserve them for a long time, you must be extra careful. The wooden boards made it particularly difficult to draw huge works. The emergence of the alternative linen canvas has opened up a new situation for oil painting creation. It is strong, flexible, light and durable. The most valuable thing is that it can be closely fitted with pigments for a long time and is not easy to peel off, and it presents a unique texture. After hundreds of years of exploration and practice, people still favor linen canvas. There is no doubt that linen is the base material of oil paintings that can be selected from thousands of years.
▼ Linen canvas
Linen seed oil is also a common material for making oil paint . oil painting pigments are made of pigment powder and color carrier. It is no less difficult to choose a high-quality color carrier than to find a good-looking color. It must be able to bond the powder, be transparent and smooth, and be conducive to application and the firmness of the conjunctiva . This requires it to achieve a clever balance between fluidity and adhesion. Its drying speed must be just right, neither too fast nor too slow. Under the screening of many conditions, people rejected many candidates such as cottonseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, and finally selected the "just right" flaxseed oil. Today, with the development of chemical industry and the emergence of new materials, people will continue the traditional painting method. It can be said that linen runs through the development history of oil painting art.
▼Oil painting pigment composition
You may be curious, why is always flax? Is it just a coincidence? This goes back to the beginning of the fate between flax and humans. Since ancient times, flax fiber and flax seed oil have been used by humans for generations. According to historical records, the linen that has been preserved to this day can be traced back to 8,500 years ago Israeli knitted fabrics in Nahal Hemar caves. About 7,000 BC, people living in fertile crescent areas began to cultivate flax to obtain their oil. The ancient Babylonians and ancient Egyptians used linen fabrics.Like the longitude and latitude of fabrics, the relationship between flax and human beings has long been inseparable. It permeates the fireworks of porridge, rice, needles and threads, and is the most familiar living material for people to obtain. Over the long period of time, people must have practiced the properties of flax on various occasions. Therefore, it is no coincidence that flax appears in the history of oil painting development. Next, let's take a look at how this close plant friend performed on other occasions.
▼ Linen cloth found in the Kunlan cave near the Dead Sea
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Linen fiber is both soft and tough, with a shiny surface and a texture like golden brown hair. is stronger, more breathable, and has better water absorption than the cotton fiber we are familiar with. However, it is less elastic, has lower softness, and is easier to pleat. The linen fabric feels smooth and will become softer after repeated washing. Its wearing experience is excellent, warm in winter and cool in summer, and moisture absorption and moisturizing. Flax fiber is a phloem fiber taken from the phloem of the flax stem. Judging from its anatomy, phloem is just a thin circle of cells in the cross section of the stem, interspersed with slender bundles of phloem fibers, and their presence can provide strength for plants. It is possible to imagine how hard work it takes to obtain such a small amount of fiber from such a slender stem, and the value of these fibers is reflected from the side. Other hemp crops we are familiar with, including hemp, jute and ramie , are also phloem fibers used by us. Materials made of phloem fibers have similar properties, such as they dry faster than cotton and wool and are stronger when wet, which explains why ropes and sails, etc. were made of hemp ropes before modern synthetic materials were used.
▼ Flax plant to spinning
▼ Cross-sectional structure of flax
▼ (a) Vertical view of flax fiber (10000 times enlargement) and (b) Cross-section (30 times enlargement)
▼ Linen: linen rods, fibers, yarns, woven and knitted linen textiles | Pictures are from Wikipedia
Linen fiber was a rare natural gift in the era of relying on handicrafts. For many centuries, linen has been the main clothing material of the Western world. According to the quality of linen fiber, it is not only a daily clothing for the lower class people, but also a gorgeous dress exclusively for royal aristocrats. It is the underwear and pajamas worn by everyone in all climates and seasons, and it is also the protagonist of other household fabrics such as sheets , napkins, etc. European women in the 12th century have been saving money since their girls' age to prepare for their marriage. Even the Bible mentions that angels wear linens. Until the late 18th century, the invention of cotton gins made cotton production more cost-effective. With the rise of the textile industry, the longer and easier to separate cotton fibers replaced the status of linen because they were more suitable for industrialization. But linen never really disappeared from our perspective. Because it was very suitable for making crisp cuffs and beautiful summer clothes, linen was still the first choice for sewing high-end clothing. One of the symbols of high-class men's clothing in the late 19th century was a warm suit made of light linen.
After a lot of hard work, until today, linen has withdrawn from the underwear industry and entered the fashion circle. It has its own wrinkled texture, which is perfectly matched with the literary temperament. It is easier to biodegrade than cotton in the soil, and is highly consistent with the concept of green and environmental protection. Returning to the essence, linen is now the spokesperson for the style and green environmental protection.
▼ In the mid-18th century, women's skirts with linen wool blended
▼ In the mid-19th century, men's suits made of cotton and linen were
flax seed oil in the kitchen
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html l1 flax not only belongs to the West, but is also very famous in China. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Zhang Qian, Zhang Qian, went on a mission to the Western Regions, and brought back flax from Dayuan Kingdom. Because it originated from the area where the Hu people lived, commonly known as flax, Zhang Qian, introduced flax mainly because it attracted its oil value. Archaeological excavations prove that my country's oil-use flax began to be planted in the northwest region at the latest during the Han Dynasty.
Linseed oil is now one of the top ten oil crops in the world. Because it is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially α-linolenic acid (ALA) with a content of up to 50%, it is called "plateau deep-sea fish oil" . ALA belongs to the omega-3 series fatty acids. It can be directly synthesized in the body through metabolism, which is the familiar DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Therefore, linseed oil has many health care effects such as lowering blood lipids, lowering blood pressure, enhancing immunity, and improving memory. In addition, beneficial lipid concomitants rich in linseed oil, such as tocopherols, phytosterols and polyphenols. It can not only make people healthy and smart, but also help with fertility. How can such a good oil crop be unpopular? Once flax was introduced, it was loved by the people of the Central Plains. It was known as the "Two Treasures of the Great Han Dynasty" together with the Sweat-Blood Horse. Genghis Khan and his army also had the habit of eating Hu oil. His Mongolian army once ruled nearly one-third of the world's territory, and maybe the contribution of flaxseed oil was also given to this.
▼ Representative triglyceride found in flaxseed oil is derived from linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid and oleic acid .
In order to protect the nutrients in flaxseed oil from high temperatures, buying cold-pressed flaxseed oil is a good choice. The only drawback is that flaxseed oil contains a large amount of unsaturated esters, and oxidative polymerization is prone to occur when exposed to air. Therefore, cold-pressed flaxseed oil needs to be eaten as soon as possible after opening, and must be sealed and stored in the refrigerator, otherwise it will be easy to appear as we commonly call " halo ". When cooking, you can choose more cold, steaming rather than frying. The easiest way to eat flaxseed oil is to mix yogurt. Stir 15ml flaxseed oil with 200ml yogurt and mix it together. It can be eaten directly, which is nutritious and delicious.
▼ Frosted yogurt
Just like the folds on linen cloth that cannot be artificially smoothed, it highlights its ancient and romance, just like the rare and precious ingredients in flaxseed oil, telling its wisdom and quality. The flax that is in the hall and the kitchen is in different historical periods is a close friend of the plant that accompanies humans. is simple and exquisite, traditional and trendy, from cheap to high-end, from simplicity to returning to environmental protection, the standards for human beings to judge the world are changing, but the legend of flax remains unchanged.
References:
https://textilefashionstudy.com/physical-and-chemical-properties-of-flax-fiber/
https://blog.fabrics-store.com/2015/04/02/a-brief-history-of-linen/
[1]Goudenhooft C. Multi-scale characterization of flax stems and fibers: structure and mechanical performances. 2018.
[2]Evolution of the ultrastructure and polysaccharide composition offflax fibres over time: When history meets science [J]. CarbohydratePolymers, 2022, 291(1):119584.
[3]Huafan, Ding Caiyun, Ma Yuting, et al. Effects of different oil making processes on the quality and antioxidant activity of flax seed oil [J]. China Oils, 2022, 47(9): 13-18.
[4] Miao Miao. A brief analysis of the use of oil painting materials and media [J]. Oil Painting. 2017, (03):122-127.
[Author] Yin Qian Senior experimentalist in the National Botanical Garden Science Museum.In 2010, he worked at the Horticulture Popular Science Center of the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has successively engaged in plant protection, introduction and conservation of rare and endangered plants, popular science education and other work. In 2021, he worked in the Beijing Botanical Garden Science Museum. He has won the third prize in the National Science Popularization Explanation Competition, and his book "Hand-drawn Observation Notes on Rare and Endangered Plants" won the silver award of the 2020 China Science Popularization Writers Association Outstanding Popular Science Works Award.
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document, image provided | Yin Qian
Editing and layout | Yao Yuan
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