Characterization Functional Properties and Utilization of Coloring Pigment from Celosia Cristata

Abstract

With the dramatic increase in consumption of processed and convenience food during the past decades, the demand for food colouring has also grown exponentially. The customer demand for natural colours in consumables as a substitute for synthetic ones has significantly increased because of their associated health benefits, non toxicity and eco-friendliness. A successful approach would be to use untapped and under exploited sources of raw materials for development and production of new natural colours. Celosia cristata (cockscomb) can offer a more natural and healthy way of colouring food and can be used as a new source of betalain pigments. Therefore, this research was focused and planned to extract and develop an alternative source of betalain pigments from the flowering parts of C. cristata. The indigenous knowledge of the native Kashmiri population about the ethnobotanical uses of the plant was also documented in this study. This research also focused on determining the nutritional composition of the flower, the nutraceutical potential, storage stability and shelf life of the extracted pigment. The acceptability of the extracted colour in a food product was also explored. The indigenous variety of the flower was analyzed for proximate composition, vitamin, mineral, fatty acid and amino acid profiling, phytochemicals, total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity. The results obtained in the present endeavor suggested that colouring pigment extracted from C. cristata inflorescences has a good potential to be used as a food colourant at a large scale. The findings are of great importance in the food industry, where, C. cristata can offer a more natural and healthy way of colouring food and can be used as a new source of betalain pigments. The extracted red colour from cockscomb flower can replace the artificial colours used in processed food preparations. newline