Stabilization of Natural Pigments in Ethanolic Solutions for Food Applications: The Case Study of Chlorella vulgaris

Chlorella vulgaris is a green microalga with a high chlorophyll content, representing a valuable source of green pigments for food applications. As the application of whole biomass can promote an unpleasant fish-like flavor, the use of chlorophyll extract can overcome this drawback. However, chlorop...

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Autores principales: Ferreira, Andreia S., Pereira, Liliana, Canfora, Feliciana, Silva, Tiago H., Coimbra, Manuel A., Nunes, Cláudia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9822436/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36615600
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010408
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author Ferreira, Andreia S.
Pereira, Liliana
Canfora, Feliciana
Silva, Tiago H.
Coimbra, Manuel A.
Nunes, Cláudia
author_facet Ferreira, Andreia S.
Pereira, Liliana
Canfora, Feliciana
Silva, Tiago H.
Coimbra, Manuel A.
Nunes, Cláudia
author_sort Ferreira, Andreia S.
collection PubMed
description Chlorella vulgaris is a green microalga with a high chlorophyll content, representing a valuable source of green pigments for food applications. As the application of whole biomass can promote an unpleasant fish-like flavor, the use of chlorophyll extract can overcome this drawback. However, chlorophylls tend to easily degrade when out of the chloroplasts, decreasing their potential as a food ingredient. Thus, to study the suitable conditions for isolated chlorophylls preservation, in this work, the influence of temperature (4 to 60 °C), light (dark or 24 h photoperiod), alkaline conditions (with or without aqueous NaOH addition), and modified atmosphere (air or argon atmosphere) on the stability of the color in ethanolic solutions obtained from C. vulgaris were studied. The loss of green color with temperature followed the first-order kinetics, with an activation energy of 74 kJ/mol. Below 28 °C and dark conditions were suitable to preserve isolated chlorophylls. The addition of NaOH and an inert argon-rich atmosphere did not exhibit a statistically positive effect on color preservation. In the case study, cooked cold rice was colored to be used in sushi. The color remained stable for up to 3 days at 4 °C. Therefore, this work showed that C. vulgaris chlorophylls could be preserved in ethanolic solutions at room or lower temperatures when protected from light, allowing them to obtain a suitable natural food ingredient to color foodstuffs.
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spelling pubmed-98224362023-01-07 Stabilization of Natural Pigments in Ethanolic Solutions for Food Applications: The Case Study of Chlorella vulgaris Ferreira, Andreia S. Pereira, Liliana Canfora, Feliciana Silva, Tiago H. Coimbra, Manuel A. Nunes, Cláudia Molecules Article Chlorella vulgaris is a green microalga with a high chlorophyll content, representing a valuable source of green pigments for food applications. As the application of whole biomass can promote an unpleasant fish-like flavor, the use of chlorophyll extract can overcome this drawback. However, chlorophylls tend to easily degrade when out of the chloroplasts, decreasing their potential as a food ingredient. Thus, to study the suitable conditions for isolated chlorophylls preservation, in this work, the influence of temperature (4 to 60 °C), light (dark or 24 h photoperiod), alkaline conditions (with or without aqueous NaOH addition), and modified atmosphere (air or argon atmosphere) on the stability of the color in ethanolic solutions obtained from C. vulgaris were studied. The loss of green color with temperature followed the first-order kinetics, with an activation energy of 74 kJ/mol. Below 28 °C and dark conditions were suitable to preserve isolated chlorophylls. The addition of NaOH and an inert argon-rich atmosphere did not exhibit a statistically positive effect on color preservation. In the case study, cooked cold rice was colored to be used in sushi. The color remained stable for up to 3 days at 4 °C. Therefore, this work showed that C. vulgaris chlorophylls could be preserved in ethanolic solutions at room or lower temperatures when protected from light, allowing them to obtain a suitable natural food ingredient to color foodstuffs. MDPI 2023-01-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9822436/ /pubmed/36615600 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010408 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ferreira, Andreia S.
Pereira, Liliana
Canfora, Feliciana
Silva, Tiago H.
Coimbra, Manuel A.
Nunes, Cláudia
Stabilization of Natural Pigments in Ethanolic Solutions for Food Applications: The Case Study of Chlorella vulgaris
title Stabilization of Natural Pigments in Ethanolic Solutions for Food Applications: The Case Study of Chlorella vulgaris
title_full Stabilization of Natural Pigments in Ethanolic Solutions for Food Applications: The Case Study of Chlorella vulgaris
title_fullStr Stabilization of Natural Pigments in Ethanolic Solutions for Food Applications: The Case Study of Chlorella vulgaris
title_full_unstemmed Stabilization of Natural Pigments in Ethanolic Solutions for Food Applications: The Case Study of Chlorella vulgaris
title_short Stabilization of Natural Pigments in Ethanolic Solutions for Food Applications: The Case Study of Chlorella vulgaris
title_sort stabilization of natural pigments in ethanolic solutions for food applications: the case study of chlorella vulgaris
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9822436/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36615600
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010408
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