Indigo has been used as a dye for millennia as have woad (Isatis tincotria) and madder, (Rubia tinctoria).Indigo is native to Asia and was the blue dye used there, while woad was used in Europe.In India indigo has been used in Ayurveda and other traditional medicine systems to cure a number of ailments, despite the fact that the whole plant contains indican, which is a carcinogenic … The indigo plant originated in the Middle East, and was so scarce and valuable that the color indigo came to be associated with wealth and power. The first use of indigo plants took place in India and dates back to the fourth century BC. It belongs to the legume family and over three hundred species have been identified. The cultivation of indigo eventually spread to the southern American British Colonies where it became one of the most profitable crops. Plant Isatis tinctoria seeds if you live in a non-tropical climate. This type of indigo tolerates cold weather best, though it may not thrive if your area has long winters, meaning longer than 4 months. Indigo is an ancient plant producing a dye that has been used for thousands of years by various cultures. Though indigo is known mainly as a natural dye, it has other amazing hair benefits too. The first Indigofera used by Europeans was grown in the Far East (the word indigo … Plant Description: Wild indigo is a perennial plant that grows about 2 to 3 feet in height and grows a 3-leaved, bluish-green clover-like leaves. It's a subshrub, which means it's thinner than a shrub, and will grow to about 3–6 feet (0.91–1.83 m). You can identify indigo plant with it’s leaves and the flowers. To make anything blue, you needed indigo, an organic compound found in the leaves of certain plants — most notably indigo plants in the genus Indigofera (from India or South America), although other plants such as woad (Isatis tinctoria) contain indigo compounds, too — just in much lower concentrations. The flowers are yellow and appear in numerous clusters. Indigo is mainly used in the form of hair oil for stimulating hair growth and in the form of hair pack for dyeing the hair. The dye can be extracted from several plants, but historically the indigo plant was the most commonly used because it is was more widely available. Indigo tinctoria and I. suifruticosa are the most common. Indigo plant has wonderful medicinal uses and all parts of the plant is used medicinally. The History Of Indigo Plant. The dye that could be extracted from the leaves and stems of the plant was used for a variety of purposes and this made indigo a very valuable plant. Indigo, (genus Indigofera), large genus of more than 750 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs in the pea family ().Some species, particularly true indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) and Natal indigo (I. arrecta), were once an important source of indigo dye.The cultivation of indigo plants and the extraction of the dyestuff were an important industry in India up to the beginning of the 20th century.