The chief colouring principle matter of madder (Rubia tinctorum L) and other red dye plants and their synthetic equivalent. Synthetic alizarine is also the name for an extensive series of chemical colours produced from anthracene, a constituent of coal tar hydrocarbons. Discovered in the year 1889, by two German scientists Graebe and Litchermann. The synthetic Alizarine red dye stuff has now replaced the Madder and Al Munjeet of the Madder family.