This work concerns the study of three tinctorial plants: madder, buckthorn and weld. These plant species produced many cultures in Provence and represented the principal raw material in red and yellow dyes for dyers and artists. An optimisation of extraction conditions for madder dyes, using ultrasounds, was carried out with a statistical model. This easy, fast and effective extraction process was compared with two other conventional techniques. A cytohistological study on madder roots permits to examine effects produced by the different extraction processes. Cells reveal, after ultrasonic extraction, profound structural alterations, explaining the high yield in extracted dyes in comparison with classical methods. A fundamental study on the dyes identification extracted from Rhamnus species green fruits was carried out. A chromatographic approach using HPLC-UV-MS permits to identify the flavonol fraction. It is mainly composed of glycosiled compounds where the rhamninosid part is linked in position 3 or 4’ on the flavonol nucleus. 3-O-acetyl-rhamninosid derivatives were also characterised and they are specific to Rh. saxatilis species. Ripe fruits contained anthraquinonic compounds that were separated from flavonols and concentrated using Solid Phase Extraction (SPE). After NMR analyse, acetyl rhamnosid and arabinosid derivatives of émodine, never described in the specialised literature, were identified as emodin-6-O-(3',4'-diacetyl)-arabinopyranosid and emodin-6-O-(2',3',4' triacetyl)-arabinopyranosid were only present in Rh. alaternus. Yellow dyes of weld (Reseda luteola) were analysed by capillary electrophoresis. In comparison with HPLC, a reduced run time was observed while preserving a suitable separation. These experimental results were successfully applied to the study of ancient samples belonging from museums and including “indiennes” of the XIXth century. Finally, dying tests were carried out, in collaboration with Les Olivades society, in the aim to develop textiles containing natural dyes
