Four Carthamus pigments were mixed separately with cellulose powder or cellulose ion-exchangers in a neutral solution and their bonding capacities were compared. Only carthamin was adsorbed by cellulose powder at a specifically marked high level. Test pigments tended to bind with anion exchange celluloses rather than cationic ones, though some discrepancies were found in the tendency. Carthamin showed less selective affinity for ion-exchange cellulose. It was efficiently taken up by ECTEOLA-cellulose (3·02), PEI-cellulose (2·34), CM-cellulose (2·43), PAB-cellulose (2·82) and SE-cellulose (1·67%) per milligram of them. Precarthamin, safflor yellow A and safflor yellow B were preferentially bound to ECTEOLA-, PEI- and PAB-cellulose. The above-listed pigments showed little or no affinity for CM-Sephadex C-25. A conspicuous augmentation in the adsorption rate was also emphasized, particularly in carthamin, by increasing the amount of cellulose powder and ion-exchange celluloses. Carthamin was separable from the reddish cellulose-carthamin complex with aqueous methanol, ethanol, ethylacetate, acetone, N-vinylpyrrolidone and urea, while the pigment bound to ECTEOLA-cellulose was not. The ion-exchange cellulose-trapped carthamin could only be recovered by using diluted formic acid, acetic acid or ammonia. The experimental findings are discussed in relation to the Saito Effect proposed for the stable colour expression of cellulose-bound carthamin. The possibility of using bound carthamin as a red food colour is also disputed.