The Colors of Health: Chemistry, Bioactivity, and Market Demand for Colorful Foods and Natural Food Sources of Colorants

Abstract

There is an increasing consumer demand for natural colors in foods. However, there is a limited number of available natural food sources for use by the food industry because of technical and regulatory limitations. Natural colors are less stable and have less vibrant hues compared to their synthetic color counterparts. Natural pigments also have known health benefits that are seldom leveraged by the food industry. Betalains, carotenoids, phycocyanins, and anthocyanins are major food colorants used in the food industry that have documented biological effects, particularly in the prevention and management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. The color industry needs new sources of stable, functional, and safe natural food colorants. New opportunities include sourcing new colors from microbial sources and via the use of genetic biotechnology. In all cases, there is an imperative need for toxicological evaluation to pave the way for their regulatory approval.

Elevated temperature and drought stress significantly affect fruit quality and activity of anthocyanin-related enzymes in jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill. cv. ‘Lingwuchangzao’)

“…Anthocyanins have anti-oxidant properties and anti-diseases to promote human health. The dark red fruits with sweet taste are more popular for consumers [58,59]. Here we show that the elevated temperature (1.5-2.5˚C than normal temperature) significantly increased the fruit sugar content, sugar-acid ratio, anthocyanins, flavonoids and carotenoids content.…”

Beetroot, A Remarkable Vegetable: Its Nitrate and Phytochemical Contents Can be Adjusted in Novel Formulations to Benefit Health and Support Cardiovascular Disease Therapies

“…Red beetroot is an excellent source of betanin (75–95%) but it also contains lower concentrations of isobetanin, betanidin, and betaxanthin [ 162 , 163 ]. Betanin content in red beet may be affected by farming conditions, including soil fertilization, moisture, post-harvest storage conditions, and, mainly, exposure to light and high temperatures [ 89 , 90 , 164 ].…”

Co-Ingestion of Black Carrot and Strawberry. Effects on Anthocyanin Stability, Bioaccessibility and Uptake

“…Although more than 15 anthocyanidins have been identified, the most commonly found in nature are cyanidin, delphinidin, malvidin, peonidin, pelargonidin and petunidin. Cyanidin, delphinidin and pelargonidin, the nonmethylated anthocyanidins, constitute around 70% of Next to their coloring attributes, anthocyanins show a broad diversity of biological activities as recently reviewed [4]. Briefly, anthocyanins are well-recognized free-radical scavengers and therefore their antioxidant capacity has been substantially explored.…”

“…In addition, evidence has proposed that these bioactives potentially improve inflammatory processes in vitro and in vivo. Consequently, a role of dietary anthocyanins, and anthocyanin-based derivatives and metabolites, to combat obesity, to promote cardiovascular homeostasis and to improve cognitive function, together with several anticarcinogenic properties, have been reported based on in vitro and in vivo approaches [1,4].…”

“…Since a wide variety of in vitro digestion model conditions limit the ability to compare results among different studies, a standardized static in vitro digestion method has been recently proposed and applied to study the bioaccessibility of polyphenols from multiple dietary sources [9][10][11][12][13]. Next to their coloring attributes, anthocyanins show a broad diversity of biological activities as recently reviewed [4]. Briefly, anthocyanins are well-recognized free-radical scavengers and therefore their antioxidant capacity has been substantially explored.…”