Health consciousness and the need to maintain immune system have increased the demand for fresh fruit and vegetable juices due to the presence of nutritional benefits including colorful pigments such as chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins. Besides providing green, yellow, and red color in fruits and vegetables, these phytochemical compounds play an important role in health maintenance through their antioxidant activity. However, natural pigments have been known to be susceptible to adverse conditions including pH and temperature. Heat treatment is commonly applied in the processing of fresh juices in order to extend shelf-life. Nevertheless, thermal treatments have been reported to cause detrimental impacts on the quality of juices. Thus, non-thermal treatments such as high pressure processing (HPP) and ultraviolet (UV) light have become alternative methods to preserve the juices without high impact on nutritional and sensory characteristics. This review underlines the chlorophyll, carotenoid, and anthocyanin pigments in green, yellow, and red fresh juices obtained from several fruits and vegetables, with the influence of pH and non-thermal treatments (HPP and UV) on the color and stability of pigments in the fresh juices.

Banana cultivars that are rich in provitamin A carotenoids and other nutrients may offer a potential food source to help alleviate vitamin A deficiencies, particularly in developing countries. The local plantain type banana, Agung Semeru (Musa paradisiaca L.), was investigated, in order to analyse the changes in the compositions of the provitamin A carotenoids and metabolite compounds, including the amino acids, organic acids, and sugars, during the ripening stage as this banana is widely processed for food products in either the unripe, ripe, or overripe stages. The bananas that had reached the desired ripening stages were subjected to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis, and the results indicated that the total provitamin A carotenoid concentrations ranged between 4748.83 μg/100 g dry weight (dw) and 7330.40 μg/100 g dw, with the highest level of vitamin A activity at 457.33±5.18 μg retinol activity equivalents (RAE)/100 g dw. Compared to the Cavendish variety, which is consumed worldwide, the Agung Semeru banana had vitamin A activity that was 40 to 90 times higher, dependent on the stage of ripening. The breakdown of the starch during the ripening stages resulted in an increase of its sugar compounds, such as sucrose, fructose, and glucose, as well as its dominant organic acids, such as malic acid, oxalic acid, and citric acid, which were observed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) during the ripening stages. The findings of this study show that the Agung Semeru banana is a promising fruit that could be widely produced as a nutritional and energy food resource, due to its high levels of vitamin A activity and sugars.

Utilization of artificial food colorants has ob tained particular concern for long time consumption. Red cabb age (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata forma rub ra L.) was extracted to produce a candidate for natural food colorant through a one-step physical extraction and microencapsulation. The color strength was determined by measuring: (1) tinctorial strength, (2) color degradation kinetics at various pH, and (3) thermostab ility. Yield level and antioxidant activity were enclosed as supporting data. The results showed that extract of red cabb age exhib ited vivid red until green color at various pH and was nearly stable at pH 2 and 3, meanwhile its thermostability was fairly good at pH 3, 4, 8, and 9. The encapsulated red cabbage extract produced high color intensity at pH 2 for red color and pH 9 for b lue color with a yield level of 5.53%. It also showed antioxidant activity with IC50 value of 725.65±0.086 ppm in methanol solvent and 258.25±0.097 ppm in water-methanol solvent.

Chlorophyll and carotenoid are vital components that can be found in the intrinsic part of chloroplast. Their functions include light-harvesting, energy transfer, photochemical redox reaction, as well as photoprotection. These pigments are bound non-covalently to protein to make pigment-protein supercomplex. The exact number and stoichiometry of these pigments in higher plants are varied, but their compositions include chlorophyll (Chl) a, Chl b, lutein, neoxanthin, violaxanthin, zeaxanthin and β-carotene. This chapter provides introduction to the structure and photophysical properties of these pigments, how they assemble as pigment-protein complexes and how they do their functions. Various common methods for isolation, separation and identification of chlorophylls and carotenoid are also discussed.

Banana, as the world’s most consumed fruit, is a good source of carbohydrate, potassium, fiber, and other essential nutrients such as pro-vitamin A carotenoids. The carotenoid content and composition in bananas commonly sold in fruit shops in Malang have become interesting studies. Five types of banana, i.e. Berlin, Mas, Cavendish, Candi and Raja were characterized using high-performance liquid chromatography and UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The carotenoid concentrations ranged between 347–3,660 µg/100 g dry weight (dw), with the level of vitamin A activity at the range between 6-139 µg RAE/100 g dw. The Mas banana had a higher carotenoid concentration compared to the Berlin, Candi, Raja, and Cavendish varieties.