Studies On The Antioxidation Of Natural Edible Pigments

Many reports have validated that free radicals are account for the occurance anddevelopment of many diseases. One of the mechanisms to liver injury is theperoxidation resulting from free radicals, the damage of cells can be adjusted byantioxidation mechanism. Because most of the chemosynthesis have adverse effects, itis important to seek natural edible pigments which have both pigmenting property,officinal and nutritional functions from natural propagations.The functionality of natural edible pigments has been more and more understood.The natural edible pigments which have been validated to have nutrition functioninclude carotenoids and anthocyanin. This paper studied the antioxidation and liverprotection of safflower yellow and some other pigments. The main results are asfollows:1. The hydroxyl radical scavenging effects of safflower yellow(SY), gardeniayellow (GY), red radish color(RRC), purple sweet-potato red color(PSPRC) and redcabbage color(RCC) were detected in vitro with fluorescence spectrophotometry, andthe results make sure that all of the five pigments have some scavenging effects on thehydroxyl radical, though each pigment didn't have the same change trend. Between theconcentration 0.1mg/ml-0.0125mg/ml, the hydroxyl radical reacting rate of SY was thehighest when its concentration was 0.05mg/ml, the clearance rate of GY decreased withthe concentration decrease, while RRC have the highest clearance rate at theconcentration 0.025mg/ml. The clearance rates of PSPRC and RCC increased with theconcentration decrease, though the reacting effects at high concentration was not asgood as that of ascorbic acid at the same concentration. When the concentration was0.125mg/ml, except for GY, the hydroxyl radical reacting rates of other four pigmentswere slightly but significantly higher than that of ascorbic acid(P<0.01).2. The superoxide anion radical reacting effects of SY, GY, RRC and PSPRC wereexamined in vitro by fluorescence spectrophotometric method. The results make surethat SY, GY, RRC and PSPRC all have some superoxide anion radical reacting activitiesand have obvious dose-dependent relationship, and all of them have the same changetrend, though the reacting effects at high concentration was not as good as that ofascorbic acid at the same concentration. When the concentration was 0.00625mg/ml, thesuperoxide anion radical clearance rates of SY and GY are markedly higher than that ofascorbic acid(P<0.05), the clearance rates of RRC and PSPRC are slightly higher thanthat of ascorbic acid(P<0.01).3. The effects of SY, GY, RRC, PSPRC, RCC to human stomach cancer cellBGC-823 were assayed by cell culture technology. It has been found that the pigmentsdidn't put up antitumer activity when we utilized MTT method to detect the effects tostomach cancer cell BGC-823 in vitro.4. After the mice were separately administered with SY and PSPRC for 14d, thenwere done intraperitoneal injection with 0.1% CCl4-peanut oil solution at the dosage of10ml/kg to have acute trauma to liver, then the antioxidation and liver protection of SYand PSPRC is measured. The results indicated that SY and PSPRC can markedly reducethe activity of GPT, GOT and LDH in serum, restrain the produce of lipid peroxidationafter the CCl4 liver injury, promote the activity hoist of liver GSH-Px and SOD, and canclearly meliorate the liver tissue structure pathological changes resulting from CCl4liver injury. This indicates that SY and PSPRC both have antioxidation and liverprotection。The experiment results have some reference effect to further exploit and make useof the officinal value of natural edible pigments.