Supported projects

The AMÉCOL project focuses on the development of untargeted metabolomic approaches to characterize organic matter in cultural heritage materials, particularly natural dyes such as madder. The work consists in the study of different species from the Rubia genus, whose main compounds— such as alizarin and purpurin—are well known, but whose overall chemical diversity remains poorly characterized. The objectives include optimizing extraction protocols, developing analytical methods using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), and interpreting the data using statistical (multivariate analysis) and bioinformatic (molecular networks) tools. This study aims to identify taxonomic markers that distinguish between Rubia species and, potentially, chemical markers of degradation. The results will contribute to ongoing research at LAMS on the chemistry and photodegradation of madder, by adding a new molecular-level characterization perspective.