Natural red pigments from plants and their health benefits: A review

ABSTRACT

Carotenoids (specifically lycopene), anthocyanins, and betacyanins are natural red pigments found in fruits and vegetables. They possess antioxidant properties beneficial in the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Recently, natural colouring agents have attracted increasing attention from the food industry as a substitute to the artificial colouring compounds, which have been discovered to cause negative impact to human’s health upon consumption. There is a growing interest in the natural red pigments in food science, due to their preventive effects on chronic diseases. Stability of the natural pigments should be concerned, as it might affect the saturation of the colour.

KEYWORDS:

• Anthocyanins
• antioxidants
• betacyanins
• carotenoids
• human health benefits
• lycopene

Funding

This work was financially supported by Crops For the Future (CFF) and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) through the CFF-UNMC Doctoral Training Partnership scholarship scheme, as well as the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (Malaysia, FRGS/1/2015/SG05/UNIM/03/1; FP005-2013B), the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI-02-02-12-SF0256), and the Prototype Research Grant Scheme (Malaysia, PRGS/2/2015/SG05/UNIM/03/1).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Crops For the Future (CFF) and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) through the CFF-UNMC Doctoral Training Partnership scholarship scheme, as well as the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (Malaysia, FRGS/1/2015/SG05/UNIM/03/1; FP005-2013B), the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI-02-02-12-SF0256), and the Prototype Research Grant Scheme (Malaysia, PRGS/2/2015/SG05/UNIM/03/1).