Comprehensive Update on Carotenoid Colorants from Plants and Microalgae: Challenges and Advances from Research Laboratories to Industry.

The substitution of synthetic food dyes with natural colorants continues to be assiduously pursued. The current list of natural carotenoid colorants consists of plant-derived annatto (bixin and norbixin), paprika (capsanthin and capsorubin), saffron (crocin), tomato and gac fruit lycopene, marigold lutein, and red palm oil (α- and β-carotene), along with microalgal β-carotene and astaxanthin and fungal β-carotene and lycopene. Potential microalgal sources are being sought, especially in relation to lutein, for which commercial plant sources are lacking.

Comprehensive review on carotenoid composition: Transformations during processing and storage of foods.

Stimulated by their multifaceted functions and actions, carotenoids have been among the most investigated food components, producing a voluminous, complicated, and sometimes inconsistent literature. This review puts into context developments in the last decade to have a comprehensive current knowledge on these valuable food constituents. Carotenoid analysis continues to show the wide biodiversity of carotenogenic foods and the many factors that affect the composition.

Update on natural food pigments - A mini-review on carotenoids, anthocyanins, and betalains.

Extensive structure elucidation has revealed a remarkable diversity of structures for carotenoids, anthocyanins, and betalains, the major natural pigments in plant-derived foods. Composition, stability, influencing factors, processing effects have been widely investigated. Carotenoids isomerize and oxidize while anthocyanins undergo hydrolysis, nucleophilic attack of water, ring fission, and polymerization during thermal processing.

Structures and Analysis of Carotenoid Molecules.

Modifications of the usual C40 linear and symmetrical carotenoid skeleton give rise to a wide array of structures of carotenes and xanthophylls in plant tissues. These include acyclic, monocyclic and dicyclic carotenoids, along with hydroxy and epoxy xanthophylls and apocarotenoids. Carotenols can be unesterified or esterified (monoester) in one or two (diester) hydroxyl groups with fatty acids.