The bacterial or algal partners produce pigments that absorb sunlight in photosynthesis. There are reports dating back almost 2000 years of purple and red colours being extracted from lichens. Lichens of the family Roccellaceae are commonly called 'orchella weed' . They have been important in history, because they could supply orcein, a dye. "Rocella tinctoria" is the source of the pH indicator litmus. Orcein is got by boiling the lichen, and litmus is produced by adding ammonia and air. Orcein is also used as a food dye, with the E number E121.