In order to evaluate the utility of the anthocyanin pigments in Ganges Amaranth as an edible pigment, this study was designed to isolate and identify the anthocyanins.
The anthocyanins present in leaves of Ganges Amaranth were extracted with 0.1% HCl in methanol. The extracted pigments were purified by organic solvent treatment and Amberlite CG-400 Type cation exchanger, and then separated into individual pigments by paper chromatography with n-butanol-formic acid-water(100:25:60, v/v) as a solvent system. The separated pigments were identified by their Rf values, sugar moieties, complete hydrolysis and spectral characteristics in the visible and ultraviolet regions. The amounts of individual anthocyanins were also determined.
The results obtained from these experiments were as follows.
1. Chromatograms of the Ganges Amaranth extract developed with BFW yielded three anthocyanin bands. The two of the anothocyanin bands were tentatively identified as malvidin-3-glucoside(acylated with caffeic acid) in band 1 and peonidin-3-glucoside (acylated with caffeic acid) iu baad 2. But the anthocyanin in band 3 was not identified due to extremly low concentration.
2. The amount of total anthocyanins was 101.57 mg/100g fresh weight of leaves in which 82. 15 mg of malvidin-3-glucoside (acylated with caffeic acid) and 27.20 mg of peonidin-3-glucoside(acylated with caffeic acid) were contained per 100g fresh weight. Maividin-3-glucoside acylated with the acid was, therefore, the most abundant pigment in the Ganges Amaranth.
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