The use of colorants as additives for foods and drinks is a significant factor to food consumers in determining the acceptability of processed foods. In recent years, the number of previously used artificial colorants/dyes suitable for food use has been drastically reduced as a result of toxicological studies. Therefore, the use of natural pigments such as anthocyanins and betacyanins that were known to have anticancer and antioxidant activities is increasingly required. In this study, the water-soluble plant pigments, anthocyanins and betacyanins, were easily extracted with a very simple method using a few organic solvents such as ethyl acetate, ethyl ether, and chloroform. After the extraction of them, these two major plant pigments could be also simply and rapidly separated and discriminated by a solely one-stepped agarose gel electrophoresis in a citrate buffer (pH 3.0). ■ keyword :|Pigment Extraction|Discrimination between Anthocyansins and Betacyanins|Gel Electrophoresis|