Betalainic crops

In addition, dehydrogenated structures were found to cause a hypsochromic shift. Since, with the exception of neobetanin, these betacyanin degradation products were found not to be native to betalain crops, it is suggested that these peculiar structures may be used as heat indicators to assess the thermal loads of the respective products have undergone during production. 

The fortunate constellation of scientists at Wisconsin facilitated further achievements toward increasing pigment content in red beets. In a recurrent selection program, betalain contents of red beet crops were enhanced by 200%. This example should encourage both food scientists and plant breeders to join forces and invest in the improvement of promising color crops. 

From a technological view, measures to stabilize betalains during the production process need to be elaborated. Some approaches have been described in the earlier literature, mainly for red beets and only recently for alternative crops such as cactus... 

Besides their interesting color application values, betalainic plants are also worthwhile from a nutritional standpoint. Research on this topic has recently been resumed with great scientific vigor in both in vitro and in vivo studies on red beets, amaranth, red-colored Swiss chard, red-violet pitahayas, and especially cactus pears. ° In the future, betalainic color crops will be benchmarked because of their pigment structure and quantity and also because of the individual and synergistic activities of their components such as colorless phenolics, amino compounds, peptides, proteins, and hydrocolloids. 

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