Developments in Plant Pigments in Functional Foods

Abstract

Food acceptability is influenced by food colour. Food colours were previously derived from synthetic materials or chemicals. However, the supply of food colouring ingredients is gradually shifting from synthetic to natural pigments. This was done in an effort to increase consumer appeal while simultaneously utilising natural pigments' functional properties, such as their bioactive properties, anticancer potentials, and vitamin A production. Natural colours contain polyphenols, anthocyanins, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids, and other beneficial substances. These substances work as potent antioxidants, diabetes inhibitors, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, chemoprotective, and anti-neoplastic agents. The precursor to vitamin A is carotenes. The isolation and application of natural pigments will eradicate the negative effects associated with synthetic colouring agents and lower the frequency of a number of disorders.

Introduction

Food pigments are chemicals that give foods their colour and/or can be used to colour them. Customer acceptance of a certain food is influenced by the colour of the food. Natural materials were used to manufacture the first colouring agent. For instance, beetroot pigments were subsequently dropped because of expensive manufacturing costs and unstable hue. However, due to a variety of health issues connected with the use of synthetic colouring compounds, natural sources of colour additives are becoming more and more popular. t has been demonstrated that natural pigments contribute to overall antioxidant capacity in a dose- and compound-dependent way. Plant secondary metabolites called polyphenols are frequently categorised as flavonoids or non-flavonoids depending on their structural makeup. While most flavonoids contribute to plant pigmentation, non-flavonoids are often colourless and do not. The primary flavonoids that contribute to pigment include flavonols, flavones, and anthocyanin. Anthocyanins can be orange, red, blue, or purple, but flavonols and flavones are both yellow. Because they are less soluble in water than anthocyanins, flavonols and flavones have a limited role in food colouring. Plants include flavonoids as minor pigments, including xanthones and quinones. Many fruits, vegetables, and flowers have anthocyanin pigments that give them their red, purple, blue, and pink colours. By luring pollinators, they also assist in a number of physiological functions like photosynthesis and pollination. Anthocyanins are acylglycosides and anthocyanidin glycosides. There are roughly 250 naturally occurring anthocyanins, which are all o-glycosylated with different sugar replacements and come in the forms of delphinidin, cyanidin, pelargonidin, marvidin, and peonidin. Commonly, anthocyanins are 3- or 3,5-glycosylated. All higher plants have chlorophylls, which are green pigments that are involved in photosynthesis. The centre of the macrocyclic tetrapyrrole known as chlorophyll is linked with magnesium. There are two types of chlorophyll in green plants (chlorophyll a and b). On the tetrapyrrole ring's carbon C-3 of chlorophylls a and b, there are methyl groups (CH3) and formyl groups (CHO), respectively. While chlorophyll b appears yellow-green, chlorophyll an appears blue-green. Chlorophyll a and b derivatives include pheophorbide (phytol and magnesium removal), pyropheophorbide (phytol, magnesium, and carboxymethyl group removal), pyrophophytin (formed by replacing the magnesium atom with hydrogen), chlorophyllide (formed by removing the carboxymethoxy group at C-7), and pyrophophytin (formed by replacing the carboxymethoxy group at C-10 with hydrogen. Pheophytin and pyropheophytin chlorophyll derivatives, which give olive brown colour, have been linked to the loss of chlorophyll pigment in thermally processed green crops. Chlorophyll b has been proven to be more heat stable than chlorophyll a. Its stability was associated with the C-3 formyl group's capacity to attract electrons [4]. The most prevalent colours in nature, carotenoids, are also utilised in the photosynthetic process. All tissues containing chlorophyll function as secondary pigments that capture light energy, and carotenoids are most frequently linked to the yellow-orange colour of many plants. Some carotenoids are linked to chlorophyll, giving plants, fruits, and vegetables a variety of eye-catching hues. Carotenes, which only contain carbon and hydrogen, and xanthopyll, which contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, are two different forms of carotenoids. Plants contain -carotene, -carotene, capsanthin, lutein, lycopene, and zeaxanthin among other carotenoids. Animals obtain carotenoid from plants; humans cannot synthesise carotenoid, yet it is found in several organs and tissues.

Conclusion

The history of natural pigments and some of their benefits were covered. The fact that natural pigments are inexpensively and readily accessible locally is a significant benefit. Among the raw materials highlighted were sweet potatoes, black sorghum, pomegranate fruits, tomatoes, beet roots, and palm fruits. The presence of betalains, carotenoids (carotenes, xanthophyll), chlorophyll a and b, antocyanins (glycosides, acylglycosides), and polyphenols (flavonoids, flavanones) is widespread. These substances are effective in the therapy of cardiovascular problems due to their potent antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and vasoprotective characteristics.

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