It is sufficient to leave them to steep for a period of three days, and no more, for the fresher they are, the greater virtue there is in the liquor. Hypobranchial gland is extracted, which we have previously spoken of, to which it is requisite to add salt, a sextarius about 20 fl. oz.

The sea snail harvested at this western Moroccan dye production facility was also known by the older name.This second species of dye murex is found today on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa (Spain and Portugal, Morocco, and the Canary Islands). Byzantine Emperor clad in Tyrian purple, 6th-century mosaic at,The Phoenicians established an ancillary production facility on the at, in. Royal blue The Phoenicians also made a deep blue-colored dye, sometimes referred to as royal blue or hyacinth purple, which was made from a closely related species of marine snail.

(Some other predatory gastropods, such as some in the family, seem to also produce a similar substance, although this has not been studied or exploited commercially.) The Nucella lapillus, from the North Atlantic, can also be used to produce red-purple and violet dyes. David Jacoby remarks that 'twelve thousand snails of yield no more than 1.4 g of pure dye, enough to colour only the trim of a single garment.' Many other species worldwide within the family Muricidae, for example, from the tropical eastern Pacific, and from the Caribbean zone of the western, can also produce a similar substance (which turns into an enduring purple dye when exposed to sunlight) and this ability has sometimes also been historically exploited by local inhabitants in the areas where these snails occur.

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