The use of natural pigments such as betalains in food and health-related products is often limited by said pigments’ relative oxidative stabilities in the products or physiological matrices. Determination of the mechanism of oxidation may inform future development and delivery of better stabilized molecules for improved outcomes. In order to best determine the oxidation mechanism of betanin, a natural food colorant, our efforts were directed toward structural elucidation (LCMS-IT-TOF and NMR) of previously tentatively identified key dehydrogenation products that had been generated as a result of betanin, decarboxylated betanin, and neobetanin oxidation by 2,2′-azino-bis­(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) cation radicals. The resultant oxidation products, the neo-derivatives, were the most stable and survived the preparative isolation and purification process. Structural analyses subsequently confirmed that these compounds, as well as neobetanin, were also the key products of alternative pathways of betanin and 2-decarboxy-betanin oxidation when catalyzed by Cu2+ cations in aqueous solutions at pH close to neutral. Therefore, the structures of the following five neo- or xanneo-derivatives (14,15- or 2,3,14,15-dehydrogenated derivatives, respectively) were confirmed: neobetanin, 2-decarboxy-neobetanin, 2-decarboxy-xanneobetanin, 2,17-bidecarboxy-xanneobetanin, and 2,15,17-tridecarboxy-xanneobetanin. This research confirmed that Cu2+-catalyzed oxidation of betanin and 2-decarboxy-betanin results in generation of neo-derivatives of betanin. In contrast, Cu2+-catalyzed oxidation of 17-decarboxy-betanin and 2,17-bidecarboxy-betanin resulted mostly in formation of betanin xan-derivatives. A relevant mechanism of Cu2+-catalyzed oxidation of the pigments is proposed herein that suggests that the oxidation of betanin can possibly occur in the region of the dihydropyridinic ring and can omit the stage of methide quinone formation in the dihydroindolic system.

Betacyanin extract of Amaranthus cruentus L. flowers was fractionated by semi‐preparative high‐speed counter‐current chromatography in a highly polar solvent system: propan‐1‐ol/acetonitrile/(NH4)2SO4satd. soln/H2O (1.0:0.5:1.2:1.0, v/v/v/v) in tail‐to‐head mode with 76% retention of the stationary phase. The crude extract as well as the fractions containing betacyanins were analyzed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry as well as by high‐resolution ion‐trap time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry detection technique for the molecular formulae and multi‐step fragmentation pattern elucidation. Four betacyanins; namely, amaranthin, betanin, 6′‐O‐formyl‐amaranthin, and 6′‐O‐malonyl‐amaranthin as well as their diastereomeric forms differing in the configuration of the C‐15 carbon atom were identified in the fractions. Amaranthin was the dominant pigment in the extract and was additionally analyzed by nuclear magnetic resonance correlation techniques after the counter‐current chromatographic and high‐performance liquid chromatographic isolation. Betacyanins were highly enriched during a single high‐speed counter‐current chromatographic step; therefore, the tentative identification of new compounds for the whole Amaranthaceae family, 6′‐O‐formyl‐amaranthin and 6′‐O‐malonyl‐amaranthin was possible. Different elution profiles of the pigments observed in the counter‐current chromatographic system in comparison to high‐performance liquid chromatography system confirm a complementarity of both the techniques especially in the separation of diastereomeric pairs of betacyanins.