Anthocyanins are natural colorants that are attracting increasing attention due to their wide color spectrum and harmless and beneficial health effects. Anthocyanin, whose name means flower in Greek, is a water-soluble substance that can be found in various parts of plants and gives color to the plant it belongs to.
Anthocyanins form many color tones from pink to purple and thus contribute to the ecosystem such as pollination. They are especially high in grapes, strawberries, red cabbage, apples, radishes, tulips, roses and orchids. Another important feature of anthocyanins is their antioxidant activity, which plays a vital role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes.
In the past years, the exact functions of phenolic substances were not known, but with advanced analysis methods, especially their positive effects on health have increased the use of anthocyanins. Especially high quality anthocyanins can be obtained from fruits and vegetables containing high amounts with advanced new extraction techniques such as ultrasound and microwave. Not only fruits and vegetables, but also cereals such as purple or blue wheat, corn and red rice contain parallel proportions of anthocyanins. Functional food production is carried out by using the obtained anthocyanins in biscuits and cookies.
In conclusion, studies on natural colorants are an extensive and active area of research due to the increasing interest in substituting synthetic colorants with toxic effects in humans.
It is stated that the widespread use of anthocyanins will be an alternative to the use of synthetic colorants that can cause hyperactivity disorder in children, and its use will increase due to its health benefits.
