Reactivity of pyrrole pigments, part 13: Identification of the reaction product generated from bile pigments by the superoxide anion

Nature's palette: the search for natural blue colorants

The food and beverage industry is seeking to broaden the palette of naturally derived colorants. Although considerable effort has been devoted to the search for new blue colorants in fruits and vegetables, less attention has been directed toward blue compounds from other sources such as bacteria and fungi. The current work reviews known organic blue compounds from natural plant, animal, fungal, and microbial sources. The scarcity of blue-colored metabolites in the natural world relative to metabolites of other colors is discussed, and structural trends common among natural blue compounds are identified. These compounds are grouped into seven structural classes and evaluated for their potential as new color additives.

The antioxidant role of bile pigments evaluated by chemical tests

Bilirubin, biliverdin and their serum albumin complexes were tested as oxyradical scavengers (superoxide generated by the xanthine/xanthine oxidase system and peroxyl radical-trapping antioxidant ability). As superoxide scavengers the free bile pigments showed activities near to that of serum albumin, higher than the water soluble vitamin E analog Trolox and lower than ascorbic acid. The peroxyl radical-trapping antioxidant abilities of the tested bile pigments were much higher than those of the serum albumin and of the same order as their serum albumin complexes. This interaction with peroxyl radicals showed different stoichiometric factors for bilirubin (approximately 2) and biliverdin (approximately 4).