Anthocyanins
1. Overview
Anthocyanins are a type of flavonoid, which acts as effective antioxidant in the human body. Found naturally in various of foods, anthocyanins is a water soluble color pigment that gives many fruits and vegetables the bright red, blue and purple colors. Depending on pH and the presence of chelating metal ions, anthocyanins appear different colors, due to their conjugated bonds in their structures that absorb light at about 500 nm.
Anthocyanins are glycosides of anthocyanidins, attaching glucose, galactose, rhamnose, xylose or arabinose to an aglycone nucleus. There are six common anthocyanidin skeletons: cyanidin, delphinidin, pelarogonidin, malvidin, petunidin, and peonidin. The anthocyanidin skeleton is usually conjugated to the sugar components via the C3 hydroxyl group in ring C. According to recent literature, more than 550 different anthocyanins have been reported varying in the basic anthocyanidin skeleton and how they are attached to glycosides.
2. Food Sources
Anthocyanins are found in all tissues of higher plants, and present in various fruits and vegetables especially in Vaccinium species, such as blueberry, cranberry, and bilberry. Other food sources include: cherries, black currant, grapes, plums, red-fleshed peaches, pomegranates, bananas, eggplants, asparagus, red cabbage, black beans and black rice.
In the United States, the daily intake of anthocyanins has been estimated to be 180–215 mg/day, which is about 9-fold higher than that of other dietary flavonoids.
3. Metabolisms and Physiology
3.1 Metabolism of anthocyanins
The mechanisms associated with absorption, transportation and excretion of anthocyanins are still largely unexplored.
The mechanisms involved in the absorption and transp...
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...pendently in the human body due to its high bioactivity. Another concern is that anthocyanins’ susceptibility to be oxidated and degraded, which limits the shelf life of its products. Finally, it’s difficult to track the metabolic progress of anthocyanins after ingestion, because it will be breakdown to various metabolic products rapidly.
In the United States, the daily intake of anthocyanins has been estimated to be 180–215 mg/day. As a natural pigment of fruits and vegetables, anthocyanins are safe antioxidants. A broad spectrum of research have demonstrated the beneficial effect of anthocyanins to promote antioxidant status, enhance vision, protect cardiovascular health and cognitive function, and prevent cancer, obesity and diabetes. Although more human studies are needed to confirm anthocyanins’ health benefits, the current available data are very encouraging.
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Dietary supplements are very beneficial to one’s body if they are taken correctly. There are many pros and cons to taking dietary supplements. In this paper I will discuss the pros and cons and how supplements affect the human body. We will also consider the government’s guidelines regarding dietary supplements.
Vitamin B12 is only found in animal products like eggs, meat, shellfish, and dairy and many groups of people
In the past decades the incidence of heart disease has increased, about three million people dying of cardiovascular disease in China per year (according to statistics from the Ministry of Public Health of China), which draws people’s great concern to find ways to take precautions. With the development of element analytical method, some types of chemical substances that are beneficial to cardiac health have been found. Lycopene is a very popular natural anti-oxidants found in recent years (Dai, 2011), as well as capsaicin and dietary fiber. Whilst some research focuses on the mechanism of action, little attention has been paid to usability issues, in particular to the generalization of health-giving chemical substances in ordinary meals. There is a lot of evidence that vegetables can positively contribute to prevent heart diseases, by supplying biologically active components. This article continues previous research in the field of Biochemistry and Medical Science, mainly trying to study the effective components which can prevent heart disease in edible vegetables.
Human pigmentation is influenced by hemoglobins within blood vessels in the skin, carotene and melanins. Melanin, the basis of pigmentation, can be found in the forms of eumelanin and phaeomelanin. Eumelanin is the brown-black pigment located in the skin, hair, and eyes. Phaeomelanin is a yellow to reddish-brown pigment found in small quantities within the skin, eyes, and red hair. Because of these two pigments, to a greater or lesser degree, we have the variation in human pigmentation that is seen today.
Ascorbic acid is an extremely vital element that is present in many fruits and vegetables, like oranges, lemons, tomatoes, broccoli and etc. But since it can break down easily with the presence of heat, it can be lost during cooking. That is why most foods have added vitamin C. The recommended daily amount of Vitamin C for adults is between 75mg to 90 mg. However, taking too much of Vitamin C can cause harm.
They are accessory pigment molecules that cascade light energy to primary pigments. Carotenoids absorb wavelengths in the blue and green region of the visible spectrum (400-550nm) and reflect wavelengths of 590-650nm so appear red-orange in colour. They are found in all plants and some photosynthetic bacteria. Carotenoids are separated into two groups, carotenes and xanthophylls. Carotenes (C40H56) are polyunsaturated hydrocarbons containing no oxygen and include pigments such as α-carotene, β-carotene, and lycopene. They give the orange colour to carrots and autumn leaves. Xanthophylls (C40H56O2) contain oxygen and include lutein and zeaxanthin. Carotenoids contain alternating carbon-carbon double bonds and single bonds, forming a conjugation system where electrons in the fourth outer shell are in p-orbitals which overlap. This overlapping produces a system of π-bonds with delocalised electrons. The delocalised electrons are free to move so are more easily lost because less energy is needed to raise them to an excited state. Shorter wavelengths towards the blue end of the spectrum with lower energies are absorbed because of the lower energy
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