Evaluation of Celosia cristata as a Potential Source of Betalain Pigments

摘要

Color is the main feature of any food item as it enhancesthe appeal and acceptability of food. Currently, there is increasingawareness among people towards natural dyes and dye yieldingplants due to severe health problems. Because of the deficiencies ofexisting natural food colorants, the demand for natural pigments isrepeatedly raised by the food industry. Celosia cristata is commonlyknown as cockscomb. It is called Mawal in Kashmiri language. C.cristata can offer a more natural and healthy way of coloring foodand can be used as a new source of natural pigment i.e., Betalains.Till now, most research has been focused on carotenoids andanthocyanins but betalains have not yet received much attention. Sofar there is only one single source of betalains that has beenextensively used in food industries worldwide and that is the red beet.To meet the high demands of food industries, there is a need fordeveloping natural food colors from sources other than red beets. C.cristata is used mainly as a food color in traditional KashmiriWazwan. It imparts a fiery hot color to gravies, without affecting thetaste and aroma of the dish, unlike beetroot pigments that impart anearthy flavor to the dishes due to “geosmin”. So the betalain pigmentextracted from C. cristata could prove to be a better alternative tobeet red color developed from beetroot. Therefore, the present studywas undertaken to optimize the conditions for the extraction ofbetalains from cockscomb flower using different solvent systems.