Grown to be Blue—Antioxidant Properties and Health Effects of Colored Vegetables. Part I: Root Vegetables

Abstract

During the last few decades, the food and beverage industry faced increasing demand for the design of new functional food products free of synthetic compounds and artificial additives. Anthocyanins are widely used as natural colorants in various food products to replenish blue color losses during processing and to add blue color to colorless products, while other compounds such as carotenoids and betalains are considered as good sources of other shades. Root vegetables are well known for their broad palette of colors, and some species, such as black carrot and beet root, are already widely used as sources of natural colorants in the food and drug industry. Ongoing research aims at identifying alternative vegetable sources with diverse functional and structural features imparting beneficial effects onto human health. The current review provides a systematic description of colored root vegetables based on their belowground edible parts, and it highlights species and/or cultivars that present atypical colors, especially those containing pigment compounds responsible for hues of blue color. Finally, the main health effects and antioxidant properties associated with the presence of coloring compounds are presented, as well as the effects that processing treatments may have on chemical composition and coloring compounds in particular.

Metabolic Impact of Flavonoids Consumption in Obesity: From Central to Peripheral

“…Anthocyanins are natural pigments and are responsible for the red-blue color of several flowers, fruits (mainly berries and grapes), roots, seeds (beans) but also of some leaves and cereal grains where they are found in low concentrations. Cyanidin, delphinidin, malvidin and their derivates are the most commonly studied anthocyanins [ 29 , 42 , 54 , 55 , 56 ].…”

Different Doses of UV-B Treatments Increase Total Soluble Phenols and Anthocyanin Content of Eregli Black Carrot (Daucus carotaL. spp. sativusvar. atrorubensAlef.) During Storage

“…In our study, the content of fructose of black carrots was 135.48-1274.17 mg kg -1 , followed by glucose (628.46-3388.83 mg kg -1 ) and sucrose ranged between 2323.05-5946.29 mg kg -1 . It stated, in a previous study, that the total sugar content of black carrots ranged between 5.12% and 7.09% (Hui and Evranuz, 2012), whereas the sugar content of black carrot found as 5.9-52% in dry matter in other studies (Kırca et al, 2007;Kamiloğlu et al, 2017). In the present study, the total sugar content of black carrot ranged between 5.92-8.75% and that of carrots in 30m and 60m treatments found to be higher than in control and 15m applications at the first two months of the experiment.…”

“…Although black carrot is an important anthocyanin source, it is generally not consumed fresh. It used as a processed product such as turnip juice and used as a source of natural food coloring (Kamiloğlu et al, 2017).…”

Antioxidants Properties of Natural Products: A Themed Issue in Honor of Professor Isabel C.F.R. Ferreira

“…Gomez-Zavaglia et al [3] reviewed the up to date literature on the chemical composition and bioactive effects of seaweeds, and reported a critical discussion about their potential as natural sources of new functional ingredients. Root vegetables as an alternative source of natural red-purple color ingredients for pharmaceutical or food applications were extensively revised by Spyridon and contributors [4]. Furthermore, a discussion of the main bioactivities of these potential sources of natural colorants were also explored by the authors.…”