Lac
A red dye and resin made by lac insects on tree twigs, used on silk and cotton.
Also: lac dye, laksha, lakh
Lac is a resin secreted by small scale insects that live on certain trees in India and South-East Asia. The crude resin is called stick lac. Lac dye is the red colouring taken from it, and the resin itself is refined into shellac. Lac dye gives a strong red to pink on silk and wool and a duller red on cotton, usually with a mordant such as alum. The same word lakh in Hindi also names the sealing wax and the resin used in bangles. Many reds sold as natural are now madder or synthetic, and lac is less common.