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Picric AcidThe first synthetic dye, picric acid, was prepared in 1771 by British chemist Peter Woulfe from the extraction of the natural plant pigment, indigo, treated with nitric acid. Initially used for silk in 1849, picric acid was employed as a yellow dye until 1885 when French organic chemist Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas realized that the yellow crystal was highly explosive. |