Section of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110, Ioannina, Greece.
Laboratory of Food Process Engineering, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Plant Foods Hum Nutr. 2022 Jun;77(2):198-205. doi: 10.1007/s11130-022-00962-7. Epub 2022 Apr 9.
Replacing synthetic dyes with natural pigments has gained great attention over the past years in the food industry, due to the increased alertness of consumers for nontoxic and natural additives. Betalains are water-soluble nitrogenous natural pigments that are used as natural colorants in food industries, due to their applicability and their rich pharmacological profile including antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer properties. Therefore, there is a need for a detailed exploration of betalains to fully exploit their properties. Opuntia spp. plants are one of the primary sources of betalains. The objective of this study was to identify betalain phytochemical content in prickly pear cactus of two different Opuntia species from Greece (an Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill (OFI) orange prickly pear cultivar and an Opuntia spp. purple prickly pear cultivar) using modern analytical techniques as also to evaluate their antioxidant and cytotoxicity profile. To achieve this we used an array of analytical techniques, including ultra-violet-vis (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) as also cell based in vitro assays. These enabled us to establish a rapid approach that can distinguish the different Opuntia spp. cultivars based on their phytochemical constituents through untargeted metabolomics analysis using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry - quadrupole time-of-flight (UPLC/MS Q-TOF). These findings could allow a further exploitation of Opuntia species and especially their enriched betalain phytochemical profile as viable source of natural food colorants.
在过去的几年中，由于消费者对无毒和天然添加剂的警惕性提高，用天然色素替代合成染料在食品工业中引起了极大关注。甜菜碱是一种水溶性含氮天然色素，由于其适用性以及丰富的药理学特性，包括抗氧化、抗菌和抗癌特性，因此被用作食品工业中的天然着色剂。因此，需要详细探索甜菜碱以充分利用其特性。仙人掌属植物是甜菜碱的主要来源之一。本研究的目的是使用现代分析技术鉴定来自希腊的两种不同仙人掌属植物（Opuntia ficus-indica（L.）Mill（OFI）橙色仙人掌品种和仙人掌属紫色仙人掌品种）的仙人掌中的甜菜碱植物化学物质含量，并评估其抗氧化和细胞毒性特性。为此，我们使用了一系列分析技术，包括紫外可见（UV-Vis）光谱、核磁共振（NMR）光谱和液相色谱-高分辨率质谱（LC-HRMS）以及基于细胞的体外测定法。这些使我们能够建立一种快速方法，通过使用超高效液相色谱-质谱-四极杆飞行时间（UPLC/MS Q-TOF）进行非靶向代谢组学分析，根据其植物化学成分区分不同的仙人掌品种。这些发现可以进一步利用仙人掌属物种，特别是它们富含甜菜碱的植物化学物质特性，作为天然食用色素的可行来源。
