Karuvelam Pattai Dyed

The Babul tree, which you may have seen extracts of in food and medicine as ‘gum arabic’, has been the subject of fascination to civilisation for some time. We have heard about almost every part of the tree being used, from the roots, to seeds, leaves and even the twigs. In fact, the fibrous nature of the twigs means they have been used throughout history as disposable toothbrushes - Saeed’s dad used them himself as a child when visiting relatives in rural Iraq.

The bark of the tree (which, boiled like a tea gives our cotton with brown tones) has traditionally also been used to treat skin and eye irritation. Our favourite recipe, formulated to treat eczema, involves grinding bark extract with fresh, ripe mangoes and applying topically.