With the realization that artificial colours are toxic and harmful for human body, people are increasingly shifting to to vegetable colours for Holi celebrations. Whereas any plant can be experimented, here are some very commonly used.
Dried and powdered leaves of Gulmohar (Delonix regia) yield a good green colour powder. Young leaves of Wheat (Triticum aestivum) dried and powdered also yield safe green powder. Henna or Menhdi (Lawsonia inermis) alone or mixed with wheat flour can also be used as powder; wet colours can be obtained by mixing Henna with water or using different mixtures of pastes of Spinach (spinacea oleracea), Beet leaf (spinach in Indian Plains, Beta vulgaris), mint (Mentha spicata), coriander (Coriandrum sativum), tomato leaves (Lycopersicon esculentum) used for green colour. -- Dr. Gurcharan Singh Retired Associate Professor SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/ http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/
