Santos-Buelga Celestino, Mateus Nuno, De Freitas Victor
Grupo de Investigacion en Polifenoles, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
J Agric Food Chem. 2014 Jul 23;62(29):6879-84. doi: 10.1021/jf501950s. Epub 2014 Jul 2.
Anthocyanins are plant pigments widespread in nature. They play relevant roles in plant propagation and ecophysiology and plant defense mechanisms and are responsible for the color of fruits and vegetables. A large number of novel anthocyanin structures have been identified, including new families such as pyranoanthocyanins or anthocyanin oligomers; their biosynthesis pathways have been elucidated, and new plants with "a la carte" colors have been created by genetic engineering. Furthermore, evidence about their benefits in human health has accumulated, and processes of anthocyanin absorption and biotransformation in the human organism have started to be ascertained. These advances in anthocyanin research were revised in the Seventh International Workshop on Anthocyanins that took place in Porto (Portugal) on September 9-11, 2013. Some selected papers are collected in this special issue, where aspects such as anthocyanin accumulation in plants, relationship with color expression, stability in plants and food, and bioavailability or biological activity are revised.
花青素是自然界中广泛存在的植物色素。它们在植物繁殖、生态生理学以及植物防御机制中发挥着重要作用，并且是水果和蔬菜颜色的成因。大量新的花青素结构已被鉴定出来，包括吡喃花青素或花青素低聚物等新类别；其生物合成途径已得到阐明，通过基因工程培育出了具有“定制”颜色的新植物。此外，关于它们对人类健康有益的证据不断积累，人体对花青素的吸收和生物转化过程也已开始得到确定。2013年9月9日至11日在葡萄牙波尔图举行的第七届国际花青素研讨会上对花青素研究的这些进展进行了回顾。本期特刊收集了一些精选论文，其中对植物中花青素的积累、与颜色表达的关系、在植物和食物中的稳定性以及生物利用度或生物活性等方面进行了回顾。
