Characterization of Ancient Chinese Textiles by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

Modern analytical techniques are playing increasingly important roles in archaeology. In the field of textile archaeology, the characteristics of silk and dyes are important since they may provide essential information on the origin of the material, dyeing techniques, and even historical windows in understanding trading routes of ancient textiles. Here, we first identify the ancient Chinese textiles from Qing Dynasty Royal Palace as silk fibroin by ATR-spectrum, then extraction conditions for dyestuff on textiles were evaluated as it have quite an effect on the analytical results in the chemical analysis, the extract was analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Tof MS) to identify the natural dyes in these ancient textiles. The results showed that a gentle extraction method (MeOH/FA/EDTA) was efficient and berberine, flavonoids and indigo were identified simultaneously in extracts of ancient textiles by high-resolution mass spectrometry. By comparing extraction profiles of pigments in plants as the likely dye sources by UHPLC-Q-TOF MS, we identified Sophora japonica L. and Phellodendron amurense Rupr. as the dye sources in historical silk fibres. The analyses suggest that the bright yellow textiles were likely dyed with a combination of these two plants and aluminium was used as mordant in the dyeing process. The experiment of color restoration confirmed our analysis. This study demonstrated its ability to identify the dyeing technology of ancient China and provide valuable data for the reparation of historical textiles preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing.