The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans made extensive use of the following red mineral pigments: red ochers, sometimes mixed with vegetable debris; native red iron oxides, richer in iron peroxide than the red ochers; residual by-products from the calcination of iron minium (of lead). The ancients also used vegetable dyes extracted from plants such as madder root, dragon's blood, sunflower, as well as red colors derived from animal sources, like mollusks and the female of coccus ilicis.