Food Colorants Research Articles

A food color-based colorimetric assay for Cryptococcus neoformans laccase activity.

Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal pathogen that causes cryptococcosis primarily in immunocompromised patients, such as those with HIV/AIDS. One survival mechanism of C. neoformans during infection is melanin production, which catalyzed by laccase and protects fungal cells against immune attack. Hence, the comparative assessment of laccase activity is useful for characterizing cryptococcal strains. We serendipitously observed that culturing C. neoformans with food coloring resulted in degradation of some dyes with phenolic structures. Consequently, we investigated the color changes for the food dyes metabolized by C. neoformans laccase and by using this effect explored the development of a colorimetric assay to measure laccase activity. We developed several versions of a food dye-based colorimetric laccase assay that can be used to compare the relative laccase activities between different C. neoformans strains. We found that phenolic color degradation was glucose-dependent, which may reflect changes in the reduction properties of the media. Our food color-based colorimetric assay has several advantages, including lower cost, irreversibility, and not requiring constant monitoring , over the commonly used 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assay for determining laccase activity. This method has potential applications to bioremediation of water pollutants in addition to its use in determining laccase virulence factor expression.IMPORTANCECryptococcus neoformans is present in the environment, and while infection is common, disease occurs mostly in immunocompromised individuals. C. neoformans infection in the lungs results in symptoms like pneumonia, and consequently, cryptococcal meningitis occurs if the fungal infection spreads to the brain. The laccase enzyme catalyzes the melanization reaction that serves as a virulence factor for C. neoformans. Developing a simple and less costly assay to determine the laccase activity in C. neoformans strains can be useful for a variety of procedures ranging from studying the relative virulence of cryptococci to environmental pollution studies.

Development of a scalable, high-anthocyanin and low-acidity natural red food colorant from Hibiscus sabdariffa L.

The hibiscus calyx contains 0.3–2.4% total anthocyanins, and is a promising source for naturally red food colorants. In this study, commercially available hibiscus calyces were subjected to ethanolic-aqueous extraction and chromatographic enrichment with the XAD-7HP resin, to create scalable, high-anthocyanin and low-acidity natural food colorants. Anthocyanins, organic and phenolic acids were monitored after each step using UHPLC-DAD and UHPLC-QQQ/MS. 75.67% total anthocyanins were recovered from calyces after double extractions, and the content increased by 8.50–14.90 times after the column enrichment, reaching 14.51–31.90% (by dry weight) in the final product. Chromatographic fractionation was also shown to effectively increase the total phenolic acids by 11.01–16.22 times, and remove an average of 98.58% of the total organic acids. High intensity redness at pH 2.5–3.5 indicated that the final product may be a promising, versatile natural food and beverage colorant in low pH products.

Uncovering the carcinogenicity of aromatic amines from food dyes and their link to oral cancer

Uncovering the carcinogenicity of aromatic amines from food dyes and their link to oral cancer

The Effect of pH and Temperature on The Stability of Anthocyanins from Black Soybean Skin Extracts

Anthocyanins are natural dyes of purple and red. Anthocyanin dyes are applied in various industries as a drink or food coloring. As natural dyes, anthocyanins have an important role in human health. This research aimed to analyze the stability of anthocyanins from black soybean skin extract at varying pH and temperature. Anthocyanins from black soybean skins are macerated using two kinds of solvents. The solvents are distilled water + 30% citric acid and 70% ethanol + 1% HCl. Maceration was carried out at a temperature of 4℃. Then the anthocyanin was treated at a temperature range of 40-90℃ and pH of 5-9 and its absorbance was measured using UV-Vis’s spectrometry. The concentration of anthocyanin from black soybean skins is from the solvent distilled water + 30% citric acid of 1.992 mg/L, while from the solvent 70% ethanol + 1% HCl it was 1.936 mg/L. The color stability temperature t of black soybean skin extract was carried out at temperatures of 40°C, 50°C, 60°C, 70°C, 80°C, and 90°C. with respective absorbance of 0.274; 0.247; 0.237; 0.227; and 0.214. The higher the temperature, the anthocyanin content decreases. pH test was carried out at pH 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 with respective absorbance values of 1.831; 1,759; 1,229; 1,118; and 1,066. The pH test showed that the higher the pH, the anthocyanin content was reduced, while the application of additional anthocyanin to white agar as food coloring showed that the anthocyanin content was only 0.125. It can be concluded that anthocyanins have good stability at low temperatures and acidic pH.

Extraction of Bacterial Pigments and Analysing Their Potential as Natural Food Colourants

Extraction of Bacterial Pigments and Analysing Their Potential as Natural Food Colourants

Stabilized chlorophyll-based food colorants from spinach: Kinetics of a tailored enzymatic extraction.

An organic solvent-free method based on limited dosing options (biocatalyst and zinc chloride) for the quick and mild recovery of chlorophyll (Chl) from spinach has been proposed. This tailored, custom-made protocol has been designed to produce stable green natural colorants. The kinetics of pigment extraction turned out to be a very useful tool to identify the proper conditions, in terms of biocatalyst dose (0.10-50U/g), extraction time (1-48h), and ZnCl2 amount (50-300ppm), both for enhancing the recovery yield and preserving the green color. Considering the extraction kinetics, the recovery yield, and the colorimetric data, the suitable conditions to produce stable green and food-grade colorants are 0.10U/g of enzyme, 3h, and 150ppm of ZnCl2 at 25°C. The extraction yield of Chl (4863µg/U) was about 51% greater than control, with a higher extraction rate constant (5.43×10-4g/(µgmin)). Considering the impact of ZnCl2 amount on Chl, its protective action resulted to be more noticeable toward Chl a: at 150ppm, an increased amount of about 2.5 and 1.5 times was found for Chl a and Chl b, respectively, in comparison to the reference (0ppm ZnCl2). PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This research demonstrates how a suitable kinetic approach helps to provide a tailored protocol, customized for the vegetable matrix, to produce stable green natural colorants from spinach. Lowering enzyme dosage and ZnCl2 amount during the extraction of chlorophyll at low temperature is crucial for its potential use as a colorant in food industry, providing high economic values through saving time and environmental protection.

Diet and Nutraceuticals for treatment and prevention of primary and secondary stroke: Emphasis on nutritional antiplatelet and antithrombotic agents

Ischemic stroke is a devastating disease that causes morbidity and mortality. Malnutrition following ischemic stroke is common in stroke patients. During the rehabilitation, the death rates of stroke patients are significantly increased due to malnutrition. Nutritional supplements such as protein, vitamins, fish, fish oils, moderate wine or alcohol consumption, nuts, minerals, herbal products, food colorants, marine products, fiber, probiotics and Mediterranean diets have improved neurological functions in stroke patients as well as their quality of life. Platelets and their mediators contribute to the development of clots leading to stroke. Ischemic stroke patients are treated with thrombolytics, antiplatelets, and antithrombotic agents. Several systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and clinical trials recommended that consumption of these nutrients and diets mitigated the vascular, peripheral, and central complications associated with ischemic stroke (Fig. 2). Particularly, these nutraceuticals mitigated the platelet adhesion, activation, and aggregation that intended to reduce the risks of primary and secondary stroke. Although these nutraceuticals mitigate platelet dysfunction, there is a greater risk of bleeding if consumed excessively. Moreover, malnutrition must be evaluated and adequate amounts of nutrients must be provided to stroke patients during intensive care units and rehabilitation periods. In this review, we have summarized the importance of diet and nutraceuticals in ameliorating neurological complications and platelet dysfunction with an emphasis on primary and secondary prevention of ischemic stroke.

Pharmacological properties and stability of natural–colored foods: a literature review

Purpose Natural food colors used in food are generally perceived as additives. Therefore, many studies have been conducted to prove the health benefits and risks of using natural food colors, which play an important role in the food industry, and to identify realistic stabilization methods. This paper aims to examine the health effects of natural food colors from a pharmacological approach. Design/methodology/approach The paper searches for relevant literature using keywords such as “natural food coloring”, “stabilization” and “antioxidant effects”. For the case study area, this paper added “food science and technology” to identify methods for stabilizing natural food coloring. From this review, the authors ultimately selected 79 articles that appeared to meet the research objectives. Findings When using natural food coloring in food, there are concerns about stabilization. However, with the development of food science and technology, the authors have found that there are multi-layer emulsification methods that can be applied before, during and after food manufacturing, and storage standards are also important. Natural food coloring is playing a diverse role in food science. Originality/value Natural food coloring has been reported in various types of literature to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor effects. The most common pigments are carotenoids. Considering the positive effects of natural food coloring on human health, the authors suggest future directions for the development of food science and technology and provide a perspective for changing consumer perceptions.

Enzymatic acylation of cyanidin-3-O-glucoside with aromatic and aliphatic acid methyl ester: Structure–stability relationships of acylated derivatives

Anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments, but they tend to be unstable in aqueous solutions. Modification of their molecular structure offers a viable approach to alter their intrinsic properties and enhance stability. Aromatic and aliphatic acid methyl esters were used as acyl donors in the enzymatic acylation of cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G), and their analysis was conducted using ultraperformance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). The highest conversion rate achieved was 96.41 % for cyanidin-3-O-(6″-feruloyl) glucoside. Comparative evaluations of stability revealed that aromatic acyl group–conjugated C3G exhibited superior stability enhancement compared with aliphatic acyl group derivatives. The stability of aliphatic C3G decreased with increasing carbon chain length. The molecular geometries of different anthocyanins were optimized, and energy level calculations using density functional theory (DFT) identified their sites with antioxidant activities. Computational calculations aligned with the in vitro antioxidant assay results. This study provided theoretical support for stabilizing anthocyanins and broadened the application of acylated anthocyanins as food colorants and nutrient supplements.

Influence and progress of tea pigment research: A comprehensive analysis of application of bibliometrics

Tea pigment, as a natural pigment component in tea, has attracted much attention because of its unique health benefits. In recent years, with the deepening of scientific research, the research on biological activity, extraction technology and application of tea pigment has made remarkable progress. Through systematic bibliometrics analysis, this paper comprehensively combs and evaluates the research status of tea pigment. The propose is to provide valuable reference for future research and application. In this paper, the chemical structure of tea pigment is firstly summarized, and then its diverse biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor, are deeply discussed, especially its potential application in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. In addition, the application prospect of tea pigment in food coloring, textile dyeing and other industrial fields is also discussed in detail. Through the collection and arrangement of a large number of research literatures, this paper analyzes the development trend, research methods and main achievements of tea pigment research, and pays special attention to the dosage and effect of tea pigment in practical application. These analyses not only contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics and functions of tea pigments, but also provide scientific basis for the further development and application of tea pigments.

Overview of industrial food fraud and authentication through chromatography technique and its impact on public health

Food fraud is widespread nowadays in the food products supply chain, from raw materials processing to the final product and during storage and transport. The most frequent fraud is practiced in staple food commodities like cereals. Their origin, variety, genotype, and bioactive compounds are altered to deceive consumers. Similarly, in various food sectors like beverage, baking, and confectionary, items like melamine, flour improver, and food colors are used in the market to temple consumers. To tackle food fraud and authentication, non-destructive techniques are being used. These techniques have limitations like lack of standardization, interference from multiple absorbing species, ambiguous results, and time-consuming to perform, depending on the type, size, and location of the system proved difficult to quantify the samples of adulteration. Chromatography has been introduced as an effective technique. It serves to safeguard public health due to its detection capabilities. Chromatography proved a crucial tool against fraudulent practices to preserve consumer trust.

Cytotoxicity and Mito-depressive Effect of Synthetic Lemon Flavour Food Dye on Allium Cepa Root Tips

Cytotoxicity and Mito-depressive Effect of Synthetic Lemon Flavour Food Dye on Allium Cepa Root Tips

Simultaneous determination of 11 water-soluble synthetic colorants in foods consumed in Chile by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode Array detection

In Chile, limited information is available on colorants in commonly consumed foods among vulnerable age groups. We developed and validated a rapid HPLC-DAD method to simultaneously evaluate 11 synthetic colorants in candies, beverages, ice cream, and cereals. The method exhibited excellent analytical performance for all 11 colorants with LOD (0.44 - 1.55 mgL-1), LOQ v(1.32 - 4.70 mgL-1), precision (4.0 and 7.3% RSD), and recovery (80 - 105%) in fortified matrices (10-50-100 mgL-1). The highest detection frequencies were as follows: cereals > candies > beverages > ice cream. Sunset Yellow was the most prevalent colorant in all food matrices, followed by Allura Red and Azorubine. Positive samples contained between 1 and 5 synthetic colorants. With the exception of cereals, the colorant concentrations in the remaining matrices exceeded the Codex Alimentarius regulations and the values reported in other studies worldwide, indicating the Chilean population is at risk.

Phycocyanin Encapsulation in Carboxymethyl Chitosan and Whey Protein Isolate as a Strategy to Enhance Physicochemical Stability as a Food Coloring: A Review

Color additives, also known as food colorings, are substances added to food and beverages to enhance their visual appeal and consumer acceptance. The color of a food product serves as an indicator of attributes like flavor, safety, and nutritional value. Unlike other natural colors, blue-colored fruits and vegetables are rare, making blue associated with synthetic food coloring. Phycocyanin (PC), a natural blue pigment found in Spirulina, has garnered attention for its various biological properties, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. However, its industrial application limited by susceptibility to factors like high temperatures and pH variations during processing. Encapsulation, a technique involving the trapping of bioactive ingredients in carriers, can address these issues. In this study, chitosan derivatives, Carboxymethyl Chitosan (CMC)-Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) used as a coating for complexes in the encapsulation of phycocyanin. Encapsulation employed to improve pigment stability, and the study investigates the impact of ratios, pH, and CaCl2 concentration addition as a crosslinking agent. The selection of the appropriate CMC-WPI ratio is crucial for achieving good physicochemical properties, high encapsulation efficiency, and survivability against gastrointestinal and storage conditions. The encapsulated phycocyanin demonstrates stability across various pH values, with the concentration of CaCl2 influencing particle diameter and shape.

Influence of visual information on sniffing behavior in a routinely trichromatic primate.

Most catarrhine primates are considered to be strongly visually oriented, obtaining information about conspecifics and their environment from a diversity of visual cues. Other sensory modalities may provide information that is redundant and/or complimentary to visual cues. When cues from multiple sensory modalities are available, these may reinforce or suppress each other, as shown in several taxa ranging from insects to humans. Here, we tested how the presence and ambiguity of visual information affect the use of olfactory cues when exploring food and non-food items in semi-free-ranging Barbary macaques at Affenberg Salem, Germany. We presented monkeys with pipes containing food (peanuts, popcorn), non-food (stones, feces), or no items in transparent or opaque containers and assessed whether animals looked, sniffed, and/or grabbed into the pipes depending on the visibility of the contents (experiment 1). Visual information had no robust effect on sniffing probability, but monkeys were more likely to sniff before any other form of inspection if the can was opaque than if it was transparent. Both visual and olfactory information affected, whether or not monkeys attempted to retrieve the items from the pipes, whereby monkeys showed an overall decrease in the propensity to grab after sniffing. Furthermore, we manipulated the visual appearance of familiar food items (popcorn) with food colorant (experiment 2), which resulted in substantially increased olfactory inspections compared to unmanipulated popcorn. Taken together, reliance on the olfactory sense was modulated by the available visual information, emphasizing the interplay between different sensory modalities for obtaining information about the environment.

Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Citrus Limetta

One of the most common fruit crops grown in tropical and subtropical areas is Citrus limetta. Upon processing, about40-47% percent of the fruit's non-edible mass is discarded as waste that impacts the environment. The aromatic compounds calledessential oils (EOs) are concentrated in oil glands found in leaves, flowers, and fruit peels. The study's primary objective was toevaluate the biological activity of fresh and heated peels extracted essential oil from Citrus limetta (CLEO). The study emphasizedthe determination of bioactive compounds from the CLEO antioxidant and antimicrobial activity assessment. CLEO's main volatilecomponent was D-Limonene in both oils, with RA (%) values of 44.14 and 77.50 in fresh and heated peel oil, respectively. Theantioxidant activity was comparable to the standard used for ascorbic. The activity (%) reached its highest (83±1.53%) at theconcentration of of100μL/mL for fresh peel oil, which is higher than the heated peel oil. Comparative antimicrobial activity wasdetermined to assess the effects of CLEO against ten bacterial pathogens, which implies that seven pathogens were significantlysensitive against heated oil. The current findings suggest that CLEO could be an impressive natural source with significant potentialto show good biological activity in both fresh and treated forms. A complex composition with approximately 20 components inCitrus limetta essential oil has been scientifically proven beneficial in aromatherapy, medications, beverages, food color enhancers,and aromatic-nature infusions for personal health care.

Multi‐omics reveal the molecular basis of LrAN2 overexpression in black goji callus promoting the excessive accumulation of petanin, a promising food blue colorant

AbstractLycium ruthenicum fruit (LRF) is a potential source of natural colorant in a wide pH range due to richness in monoacylated anthocyanin petanin. However, the yield of LRF largely lags behind the market demand in food industry. In this study, overexpressing LrAN2 (LrAN2OE), an anthocyanin activator in LRF, produced excessive acylated anthocyanins including petanin in L. ruthenicum callus (LRC). Physiological analysis indicates that LrAN2OE extensively orchestrate the redox homeostasis, including antioxidant enzymes system and antioxidants with low molecular weight. KEGG enrichment analysis indicates that LrAN2 hierarchically orchestrate the acylated anthocyanin biosynthesis in LRC at multi‐omics level, such as small RNAome, transcriptome, and metabolome. The anthocyanin yield of LrAN2OE callus cultured by 5% sucrose or glucose is significantly enhanced. Furthermore, the anthocyanin yield approach to 96.23 mg/g dry weight, approximately 3.5 folds of that in LRF, when LrAN2OE suspension cells are cultured in liquid MS medium supplement with 5% sucrose and 100 mM NaCl. Notably, anthocyanins extracted from LrAN2OE callus are stable in pH 1.0–2.0, pH 7.0, and pH 9.0, showing red or blue color within 30 days at 4°C. Our findings suggest that LrAN2 is perfect gene resource for metabolic engineering of acylated anthocyanins in LRC, a promising chassis producing acylated anthocyanins. Taken together, LRC metabolically engineered by LrAN2 is a potential source of natural food color, which facilitates to make up the shortfall of LRF as source of natural colorant in future food industry.

Production of Natural Food Colorant with Organic Mordant Solutions and Incorporation into Modern Food Systems

Abstract Colorants are an important exposure that affects the way we feel and judge foods. The food colorant is normally associated with the flavor, safety and nutritional value of the food product. Colorant are obtained from natural plants and minerals. In today’s world, synthetic oxidative food colors are used. It contains a high chemical composition and is derived from petroleum or crude oil. Sunset yellow, carmine, amaranth and azorubine are examples of common synthetic food colors. It leads to some diseases such as asthma, allergy reactions and cancer. Hence, natural food colors were produced from natural plants. The plants contain several pigments, such as betacyanin, anthocyanin and curcumin. The fruit juice of Opuntia ficus-indica, in particularly it contains betacyanin pigments, which can be used as a natural red-purple food colorant. In order to improve the results, we extracted the juice from Opuntia ficus-indica and banana pseudo-stem. Next, we qualitatively analyzed the juice to find out whether flavonoids, triterpenoids, proteins, alkaloids, carbohydrates, saponin, tannin, and phenol was present. Opuntia ficus-indica has antioxidant properties, as does banana pseudostem sap, which has antioxidant, antithrombotic and anti-haemolytic properties. Then analyzed physical parameters of color strength were measured (using a UV spectrophotometer) at 450 nm to determine color strength and that the results were good with pH, viscosity, smell and taste. And toxicity analyses of aflatoxin and ochratoxin shows good results. This colorant has been used successfully in two food systems: ice cream and milkshakes. which is preserved after one month in the refrigerator.

Monitoring the Quality Parameters of Mango Juices Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy.

The current study looks into the characterization and differentiation of mango juices that are sold commercially using fluorescence spectroscopy. The emission spectra displayed well-defined and prominent peaks that suggested the existence of many fluorophores, such as water content, β-carotene, tartrazine food color, and chlorophyll components. For this study, water and yellow food coloring solution, the two most popular adulterants were added to pure and authenticated mango pulp that had been diluted to an 8% concentration. The fluorophore profile of the samples was ascertained by using multivariate analysis (principal component analysis) in conjunction with fluorescence spectroscopy. The findings showed that the existence of water content is directly correlated with the spectral bands at 444 and 467nm, and for food color at 580nm thus the best indicators to detect adulteration of high water contents and food color. Chlorophyll and β-carotene intensities varied among juices, acting as a discriminant marker to distinguish between those with unripened pulp (high chlorophyll intensity) and those with more water and other pigments (lower chlorophyll and β-carotene intensities). With fluorescence emission spectroscopy, qualitative assessment of mango juice can be quickly determined by spectral features, providing details on composition and quality.

The effect of artificial colors in food and replacing Them with natural vegetable colors

The effect of artificial colors in food and replacing Them with natural vegetable colors