Extraction of Herbal Color from Red Beetroot (Beta vulgaris) for Industrial Applications

Abstract

Excessive use of commercially available synthetic colorsis a potential environmental threat that has adverse effects on human health. The actualcause of all theissuesis the presence of carcinogenic synthetic dyes and pigmentspresentin these products. Howeverherbal dyesand pigments are the only possiblealternative preventionfrom theselife-threateningdyes.Although herbal dyes are animportantsourceforthereplacementofsyntheticelements,buttheirsuccessfuloptimization is still a major concern. Out of different plant sources, Red beetroot (Betavulgaris L.) is an emerging source of natural herbal colors for many industrial products.The main reason of its utilization is high content of reddish-purple dye extracted from itduetothepresenceofBetalainspigment.ButthestabilityofBetalainsespeciallyBetacyanins is a very difficult due to the less stability of the pigment under differentexternal parameters of temperature, pH, oxygen, and heat. In this study we optimized theextraction parameters of Betalains pigments especially Betacyanins from red beetroot toimprove the stability ratio of the color under different external parameters particularly ofpH, temperature and then exposed it to other degrading factors for analyzing its stabilityin the presence of heat, light, moisture etc. The qualitative and quantitative analysisensures the presence of these elements in the sample. For this purpose, TLC, GC-MS,FTIR,UV vis Spectrophotometerwere used. Furtherafter the addition of colorintomany food products especially milk, yogurt, juices, salads their organoleptic propertiesincluding the color, taste and smell of the final products were evaluated. From this studyithas been concluded thatred beetrootcan be incorporated in differentproducts toenhance the physical and biological properties of the product and from the daily food wecan maintain our health in a good state. Not only this extracted dye can be a potentialcandidate for food, cosmetics and textile but also can be utilized in paint and stainingindustriesas well. Keywords: Beta vulgaris, Betalains, Betacyanins, Betaxanthins, Herbal staining agent,FoodAdditive,HerbalInk,UVvis-Spectrophotometer,GC MSAnalysis,FTIRAnalysis,andThinLayer Chromatography, 2,2-Diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl assay, Escherichia coli,Staphylococcusaureus.