Many natural dyes have been known for a long time. They were obtained from animal and vegetable sources. Today however practically all dyes are synthetic. They are prepared from aromatic compounds, for which then the only available source was coal tar. Hence the name coal tar dyes.
Organic dyes are colored.
Organic compounds have an ability to impart their color to the material to be dyed, in an aqueous medium. History of Dyes Until the middle of nineteenth century, all dyes available to man came from natural sources. Most of these were vegetable extracts and a few were animal products. The range of colors was limited as was the utility of dyes. If a natural dye did not have the chemical groupings necessary to react with the chemical groupings of a particular fabric, the fabric could not be dyed with that material.