Magnificent Design

    Science of Mehandi (henna) body art    Henna comes from the dried leaves of the plant Laws onia Inermis. If the plant sounds like it has origins in the west, it's because its botanical name was given by the famed Swedish botanist carl Linnaeus, who named it after his assistant, the Scottish physician Isaac Lawson. The dried leaves of the plant are crushed and ground into a fine powder that's mixed with oils and water to create a paste. This paste uses water and clove oil-which smells spicy and left a cooling sensation on the skin. The paste is packed into cone-shaped containers and the fine points is used to create delicate patterns on the body. The molecule that's responsible for the staining of the skin in lawsone. Lawson is unusually small for a dye molecule and once on skin, it slowly migrates from the paste into the outer layer of skin, binding to the keratin proteins and creating a stain. The longer you leave the paste on, the darker the stain will be. Applying M