Known Uses of Crystal Violet / Methyl Violet?

Hello everyone,

This is sort of hyper-specific for this forum, but I'm giving it a shot. We had an odd mark on a product. We sent it off for testing, and it came back as "methyl violet" (also called crystal violet and a long list of other things).

It's a dye, but there aren't many sources of inks or dyes in our manufacturing. It's a controlled environment, so almost everything is made of stainless steel. I've reached out to the manufacturers of some of our materials, and everyone (so far) has come back saying they don't use methyl violet.

The last big potential source I see is permanent markers that are used on the floor. I can't find any information on any brand of permanent marker's dyes (i.e., their SDS will list the various solvents, then "colorant" or "dye"). I've found some vague discussion online that methyl violet can be used in blue pens.

Does anyone know whether methyl violet is used in permanent markers or have any other suggestions for unusual sources of methyl violet?

Thanks,
Zero Yield

Methyl violet is used in Marking Blue used in metal working.

Miner said:

Methyl violet is used in Marking Blue used in metal working.

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Followed up with our machine shop to see if they use it. Thanks!

Zero_yield said:

Followed up with our machine shop to see if they use it. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Follow up post:

1. Our machine shop uses marking blue, but they haven't done anything in the relevant area for 2+ years. It's kept behind a locked door on the other half of the building from the deviation.
2. Our lab uses methyl violet for Gram Stain testing but very infrequently. It's kept in a drawer past a locked door on the other half of the building from the deviation.
3. I found federally funded, the lovingly titled "Microscopy with Direct Analyte Probe Nanoextraction (DAPNe)-Coupled to Nanospray Mass Spectrometry for Localized Chemical Analysis of Document Inks," which explicitly points to methyl violet (under the name "Basic Violet 3") as one of the inks used in blue Sharpies. We use Sharpies (including blue ones) extensively in our process, so it looks like the most likely root cause.

Thanks for sharing an interesting story, and its ending!

Well, I'll throw another one out there for anyone else who happens to peruse this thread later: Methyl violet is used extensively in surgery under the name gentian violet.

So if the issue happened during manufacturing, the most likely source was Sharpie. But I also need to address the possibility that it occurred at the customer.

Surgical markers made with gentian/methyl violet.

Study related to use in cataract surgery and another.

Dying of silk sutures using gentian/methyl violet.

Writing on the eye using gentian/methyl violet.

Use in a surgical tray for differentiating swabs.

"Gentian violet is the most common dye found in surgical marking pens."