The invention relates to a dyestuff of plant origin, obtained from a colored part of a plant species, the cell tissues of which contain iridisomes responsible for the coloration of said part. It relates most particularly to a blue dyestuff obtained from the arils of the seeds of the plant species Ravenala madagascariensis. It also relates to compositions, in particular cosmetic compositions, especially intended for making up the skin or superficial body growths, containing said dyestuff.

Functionalized fluorescent tracers, compositions, and methods for extracting the functionalized fluorescent tracers from oil phases and other wellbore or drilling fluids are provided. In some implementations, a sorbent for extracting tracer molecules from a fluid includes a silica-based sorbent. The silica-based sorbent includes a hydrophobic functional group and an ionic functional group. In some implementations, the ionic functional group is positively charged. In some implementations, the ionic functional group is negatively charged. A method of extracting a functionalized dye from an oil phase includes mixing a sorbent for extracting tracer molecules with an oil phase sample that includes a functionalized fluorescent tracer, recovering the sorbent from the oil phase, and dispersing the sorbent in an organic solvent. In some implementations, the method includes lowering the pH of the organic solvent. In some implementations, the method includes raising the pH of the organic solvent.

The present invention relates to a process for purifying the xanthophylls astaxanthin and canthaxanthin.

The process comprises suspending the xanthophyll in an organic solvent or solvent mixture, treating the suspension of the xanthophyll in the organic solvent or solvent mixture at elevated temperature, and subsequent separation off of the xanthophyll from the solvent by a solid-liquid separation, wherein the organic solvent is selected from ketones of the general formula (I) and mixtures of ketones of the general formula (I)

##STR00001## where R.sup.1 is C.sub.1-C.sub.4 alkyl and R.sup.2 is selected from C.sub.1-C.sub.6 alkyl, C.sub.3-C.sub.8 cycloalkyl, phenyl and benzyl, wherein the phenyl rings in the two last-mentioned radicals are unsubstituted or can have 1 or 2 methyl groups, or R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 together are linear C.sub.4-C.sub.6 alkylene, which can bear 1, 2 or 3 methyl groups as substituents.

The present application provides method for producing methylene blue that includes the steps of providing a reaction mixture having one or more methylene blue intermediates; precipitating metal from the reaction mixture; and producing therefrom crude methylene blue. The crude may further be purified, resulting in methylene compounds having low impurities, preferably having a purity greater than about 97%, having Azure B impurity no greater than 2.5%, and/or a total metal content no greater than 77 ppm. Formulations containing such compounds are also provided.

Provided are fluorescent nanoparticles and their conjugates and methods of using the same for in vivo and in vitro diagnostics and other applications. In some embodiments, provided are fluorescent nanoparticles with high solid-state absolute quantum yield. In some embodiments, provided are methods of manufacturing such nanoparticles. Nanoparticles may comprise monomers, such as styrene, and fluorophores, such as AlEgen™ Bright Green.

A pigment particle template and a method of fabricating the same, and a method of fabricating a pigment dispersion liquid are described. The method of fabricating the pigment particle template has steps of: providing a substrate; forming a covalent organic framework layer on the substrate, wherein the covalent organic framework layer has porous network structure; forming a first porous organic layer on the covalent organic framework layer; and replacing the substrate with a second porous organic layer. The present application is beneficial to production of nanoparticles with controllable particle size and uniform size by utilizing a controllable size of the covalent organic framework structure and a stability of a sandwich structure.

The electrophotographic photosensitive member has: a cylindrical support; a charge generating layer formed on the cylindrical support; and a charge transport layer formed on the charge generating layer, the charge generating layer contains a hydroxygallium phthalocyanine crystal having a particular CuKα characteristic X-ray diffraction peak, a titanyl phthalocyanine crystal having a particular CuKα characteristic X-ray diffraction peak or a chlorogallium phthalocyanine crystal having a particular spectral absorption spectrum as a charge generating material, and in the charge generating layer, with respect to the film thickness of the charge generating layer, when a region from the central position of an image forming area to the end position of the image forming area is divided in the axial direction of the cylindrical support into five equal regions and the average film thickness of the charge generating layer in each region satisfies a specific condition.

A process for producing the gardenia blue pigment is provided. The process is easy to operate and suitable for industry and the obtained gardenia blue pigment is bright and suitable for industrial application.

The present application provides black perylene pigment microparticles having an average circularity of 0.8 or more which are amorphous; and a method of producing the black perylene pigment microparticles, which comprises a step of mixing a pigment solution in which a black perylene pigment is dissolved and a precipitation solvent for precipitating black perylene pigment microparticles from the pigment solution to form black perylene pigment microparticles, wherein at least one of the pigment solution and the precipitation solvent independently includes a salt of an alkaline earth metal and/or a particle growth inhibitor. The present invention can provide black perylene pigment microparticles having good dispersibility, high concealability and light-shielding property and controlled hue and chroma, and a method of easily producing the same, and the like.

Methods of isolating phenols from phenol-containing media. The methods include combining a phospholipid-containing composition with the phenol-containing medium to generate a combined medium, incubating the combined medium to precipitate phenols in the combined medium and thereby form a phenol precipitate phase and a phenol-depleted phase, and separating the phenol precipitate phase and the phenol-depleted phase. The methods can further include extracting phenols from the separated phenol precipitate phase. The extracting can include mixing the separated phenol precipitate phase with an extraction solvent to solubilize in the extraction solvent at least a portion of the phenols originally present in the phenol precipitate phase.