Red Cabbage Litmus Test

Dr. Rangi Te Kanawa is a textiles conservator-- someone responsible for the repair and preservation of cultural arts and artifacts. In her work preserving precious Māori textiles, she found that some dyes used on the fabric were acidic. By finding the right basic solution, she was able to neutralize the dye's acidity.

Acids and bases are all around us in our lives, and a litmus test can help us determine the pH of a substance. Make your own red cabbage litmus paper and then test ingredients in your kitchen to see if they are acids or bases!

Red cabbage can be used as a pH indicator! It turns pink when exposed to acids, and blue when exposed to bases. Photo courtesy of Millars via Wikimedia.