Abstract:
Numbers of phytochemicals have been derived directly or indirectly from natural sources
in the form of food supplements, oil, nutraceuticals, and color pigments. Herbal
medicines have been used for the treatment of various disorders in Ayurveda medicine
and all over the world due to their numerous health benefits. Bovitiya (Osbeckia
stellate) is a medicinal plant which contains Anthocyanins that is responsible for the
various colors of the plant. Anthocyanins have a wide range of pharmacological
properties and play a major role in the food industry as natural colorants due to its
possible health benefits and safety issues compared to the synthetic dye. In this study,
Bovitiya fruits were used to extract anthocyanin pigment. Weighted fruits were blanched
to degrade the enzymes responsible for browning, before the extraction procedure. The
experiment was carried out using only 50% ethanol solution, according to 1:5 (w/v)
ratios. The total monomeric anthocyanin content was measured using a pH differential
method. Physiochemical properties and stability under different processing conditions
(temperature, pH) were estimated. The stability of color extract was evaluated for one
week using standard color codes. The total anthocyanin contents were 62.20 mg kg-1
under the optimum condition set at temperature 60⁰C, 300 rpm for 3 hours. The study
demonstrated that the very dark purple extract of the fruits is stable under low pH values
(≤4.7) and unstable under alkaline (≥7) conditions. Also found to be sensitive to high
temperature were the conditions like 121⁰C for 10 sec. Microbiological stability was
tested using the standard method. Total plate count was (3.23±0.2 CFU mL-1
) and yeast
and mold count was (2.33±0.2 CFU mL-1
) and Coliform, E. coli was not detected. The
study carried out on Bovitiya provides information to tap its potential as a colorant in
acidic and neutral food.
Keywords: Food color, Bovitiya, Anthocyanin, pH differential method, Physiochemical
