10 natural acid-base Indicator
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Home and Garden pH Indicators
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Testing solutions for pH in plates
Cultura Exclusive / GIPhotoStock / Getty Images
by
Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
Updated September 16, 2019
There are many common household products and garden plants that can be used as pH indicators. Most plants contain pH-sensitive anthocyanins, making them perfect for testing acid and base levels. Many of these natural pH indicators exhibit a broad range of colors.
Plants You Can Use to Test pH Levels
The natural world has given us numerous plants, from beets to grapes to onions, that can be used to test the pH levels of a solution. These natural pH indicators include:
Beets: A very basic solution (high pH) will change the color of beets or beet juice from red to purple.
Blackberries: Blackberries, black currants, and black raspberries change from red in an acidic environment to blue or violet in a basic environment.
Blueberries: Blueberries are blue around pH 2.8-3.2, but turn red as the solution becomes even more acidic.
Cherries: Cherries and their juice are red in an acidic solution, but they turn blue to purple in a basic solution.
Curry Powder: Curry contains the pigment curcumin, which changes from yellow at pH 7.4 to red at pH 8.6.
Delphinium Petals: The anthocyanin delphinidin changes from bluish-red in an acidic solution to violet-blue in a basic solution.
Geranium Petals: Geraniums contain the anthocyanin pelargonidin, which changes from orange-red in an acidic solution to blue in a basic solution.
Grapes: Red and purple grapes contain multiple anthocyanins. Blue grapes contain a monoglucoside of malvidin, which changes from deep red in an acidic solution to violet in a basic solution.
Horse Chestnut Leaves: Soak horse chestnut leaves in alcohol to extract the fluorescent dye esculin. Esculin is colorless at pH 1.5 but becomes fluorescent blue at pH 2. Get the best effect by shining a black light on the indicator.