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Green Jeans? UC Berkeley Researchers Working On Environmentally-Friendly Indigo Dye

BERKELEY (CBS SF) – Not far from where jeans were first made, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley are reportedly working on dyes that make their familiar blue hue friendlier to the environment.

According to a CNET report, a chemical used to make synthetic indigo dye involves a chemical that is toxic to fish and that can corrode pipes. BASF, which made the dye, told CNET that it stopped making the synthetic dye.

Looking to find an alternative, UC Berkeley professor John Dueber is reportedly looking at a chemical in indigo producing plants called indican. The chemical is locked in sugar molecules inside the leaves of the plant.

The team is looking at using bacteria and an enzyme to extract indican and produce dye without the need of petroleum.

Jeans were patented by San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis in 1873.

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