A naturally sourced colorant could replace synthetic blue dye used in the food industry

The Discovery of a natural cyan blue: A unique food-sourced anthocyanin could replace synthetic brilliant blue

2021-04-07

(Press-News.org) Scientists have developed a long-sought naturally derived cyan blue colorant sourced from red cabbage anthocyanin pigments that may offer an alternative to the industry standard blue dye, although more testing is needed to determine the compound's safety. The novel colorant, which was developed using an enzyme that converts a range of anthocyanins to one with the ideal wavelength, remains highly stable over time and may also produce better green colors than those derived from existing natural blue colorants. Several research programs around the world are dedicated to the hunt for a natural alternative to FD&C Blue No.1 - a challenging effort given that cyan blue is one of the rarest colors in nature. While previous research has shown that red cabbage anthocyanins produce a vibrant blue color in a pH-neutral solution, this color has been too violet to replace artificial blue dye. Studies have further found that Peak 2 (P2), a minor mono-acylated anthocyanin, warrants further investigation, yet this compound contributes less than 5% of red cabbage's total anthocyanin content. To further explore the potential of anthocyanins as a blue colorant, Pamela Denish and colleagues incubated P2, as well as anthocyanins P5 and P8, with aluminum cations, finding that only the P2 solution produced the desired blue color. Next, the researchers tested the color stability of blue colorant developed from P2, observing that while many naturally sourced colorants have limited stability over time, its color only diminished by 14% in sugar syrup over 55 days. They also demonstrated the colorant's ability to create blue and green colors in several food and confectionary products, where it also showed excellent stability over 30 days when stored at room temperature. Finally, Denish et al. identified a hydrolytic enzyme that converts the red cabbage anthocyanins P6, P7, and P8 into P2, addressing the need to obtain sufficient quantities of P2 to develop a food coloring agent. The authors note that toxicity studies will be needed to define the novel colorant's usage limitations and food safety precautions, and further research will be required to evaluate its stability and color in a wide range of applications.

INFORMATION:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Ultrasensitive, rapid diagnostic detects Ebola earlier than gold standard test

2021-04-07

DURHAM, N.C. -- An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Duke University has developed a highly sensitive and rapid diagnostic test for Ebola virus (EBOV) infection. In monkeys infected with Ebola, this diagnostic, called the D4-assay, proved to be 1000 times more sensitive than the currently approved rapid diagnostic test and capable of detecting the virus a full day earlier than the gold standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. This work, which appears in Science Translational Medicine on April 7, was done by biomedical engineers, molecular ...

Urolithin A shows effective against muscular dystrophy

2021-04-07

Progression of Duchenne Muscle Dystrophy (DMD) can be delayed in mice by supplementing their diets with Urolithin A, according to new results reported today. The findings, published in Science Translational Medicine, raise hopes that new treatment options could one-day be developed for DMD, an uncurable genetic condition characterized by progressive muscle degeneration. About 1 in 3,500 boys are born with DMD, which usually develops in childhood and significantly reduces life expectancy. The new research carried out at the laboratory of Professor Johan Auwerx, ...

Fungi are present in your lungs

2021-04-07

The lungs were for a long time considered to be sterile in health, while in diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) failure in immune mechanisms were thought to allow microorganisms to proliferate and persist. New sequencing techniques have shown that several microorganisms reside in the lungs of healthy individuals, as well. Few studies have examined the fungal community in COPD and compared it to healthy controls using such techniques. According to the study findings, the compositions of these environments seem to be unaffected by the use of inhaled steroids. Lungs have a unique fungal environment The Bergen COPD Microbiome study (short name "MicroCOPD") is the world's largest single-centre study on the fungal community in ...

Crohn's disease may be caused by immune signaling failure

2021-04-07

JUPITER, FL - People with Crohn's disease are typically treated with powerful anti-inflammatory medications that act throughout their body, not just in their digestive tract, creating the potential for unintended, and often serious, side effects. New research from the lab of Mark Sundrud, PhD, at Scripps Research, Florida suggests a more targeted treatment approach is possible. Crohn's disease develops from chronic inflammation in the digestive tract, often the small intestine. More than half a million people in the United States live with the disease, which can be debilitating and require repetitive surgeries to remove irreversibly damaged intestinal tissue. Writing in the journal Nature on April 7, Sundrud's team finds that certain immune cells ...

Carbon dioxide levels reflect COVID-19 risk

2021-04-07

Tracking carbon dioxide levels indoors is an inexpensive and powerful way to monitor the risk of people getting COVID-19, according to new research from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the University of Colorado Boulder. In any given indoor environment, when excess CO2 levels double, the risk of transmission also roughly doubles, two scientists reported this week in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The chemists relied on a simple fact already put to use by other researchers more than a decade ago: Infectious people exhale ...

WHOI and NOAA release report on U.S. socio-economic effects of harmful algal blooms

2021-04-07

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) occur in all 50 U.S. states and many produce toxins that cause illness or death in humans and commercially important species. However, attempts to place a more exact dollar value on the full range of these impacts often vary widely in their methods and level of detail, which hinders understanding of the scale of their socio-economic effects. In order to improve and harmonize estimates of HABs impacts nationwide, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Center for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) and the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) convened a workshop led by WHOI Oceanographer ...

Field guides: Argonne scientists bolster evidence of new physics in Muon g-2 experiment

2021-04-07

Scientists are testing our fundamental understanding of the universe, and there's much more to discover. What do touch screens, radiation therapy and shrink wrap have in common? They were all made possible by particle physics research. Discoveries of how the universe works at the smallest scale often lead to huge advances in technology we use every day. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, along with collaborators from 46 other institutions and seven countries, are conducting an experiment to put our current understanding of the universe to the test. The first result points to the existence of undiscovered particles or forces. This new physics could help explain long-standing ...

First results from Fermilab's Muon g-2 experiment strengthen evidence of new physics

2021-04-07

AMHERST Mass. - The long-awaited first results from the Muon g-2 experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory show fundamental particles called muons behaving in a way that is not predicted by scientists' best theory, the Standard Model of particle physics. This landmark result, made with unprecedented precision and to which UMass Amherst's David Kawall's research group made key contributions, confirms a discrepancy that has been gnawing at researchers for decades. "Today is an extraordinary day, long awaited ...

Surgical sutures inspired by human tendons

2021-04-07

Sutures are used to close wounds and speed up the natural healing process, but they can also complicate matters by causing damage to soft tissues with their stiff fibers. To remedy the problem, researchers from Montreal have developed innovative tough gel sheathed (TGS) sutures inspired by the human tendon. These next-generation sutures contain a slippery, yet tough gel envelop, imitating the structure of soft connective tissues. In putting the TGS sutures to the test, the researchers found that the nearly frictionless gel surface mitigated the damage typically ...

Research brief: Reflecting sunlight could cool the Earth's ecosystem

2021-04-07

Published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, researchers in the Climate Intervention Biology Working Group -- including Jessica Hellmann from the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment -- explored the effect of solar climate interventions on ecology. Composed of climate scientists and ecologists from leading research universities internationally, the team found that more research is needed to understand the ecological impacts of solar radiation modification (SRM) technologies that reflect small amounts of sunlight back into space. The team focused on a specific proposed SRM strategy -- referred ...