Marigold Yellow Pigment Extraction And Characterization

Marigold yellow pigment is a kind of functional pigment that has high edible value. There are little research on the pigment, and always in organic solvent extraction which was not efficient. In order to solve the questions, we analyzed the composition of petal of the Marigold flower, and adopted SFE-CO2(Supercritical CO2 Fluid Extraction) to extract the Marigold yellow pigment. Experiment parameters of the SFE-CO2 were optimized. The sense quality, the physical-chemical properties and the composition of yellow pigment were analyzed. The effects of some kinds of factors on the stability of the pigment and the anti-grease oxidation activities were investigated. It was systemically studied in this paptr for the first time about the pigment. The theoretical foundations and the practical value of the SFE-CO2 extraction of the pigment were provided for the development of the new food additives.The ratio of the fresh petal in the whole Marigold flcwer was 52.33%; the ratio of dry petal of flower in the wet petal of Marigold flower was 7.51%, the ratio of dry petal in fresh petal of Marigold flower was 14.36%, and the water content was 7.24g per 100g dry petal of Marigold flower. The rough lipids content is 10.69%, and the carctenoids content in lOOg dry powder of the flower is 1.9g.The best SFE-CO2 parameters of the yellow pigment were optimized as follows: the temperature was 47, the pressure was 54.5Mpa, the extraction time was 130min, CO2 fluid was 0.6ml/min, and the particle size was 20 mesh. The pressure was the dominant factor which affect the yield and the color value of the pigment.It indicated that SFE-CO2 extraction is better thar organic solvent extraction through the results of the sense quality and the physical-chemical properties parameters.It indicated that the main components of the pigment are carotenoids. lutein and lutein esters are the highest contents of the pigment. There are many lipid acids such as lauric acid, myristic acid , hexadecanoic acid, stearic acid, oleic ac d, linoleic acid and arachidic acid in the pigment oil. They binds with lutein to promote its stabili y.Marigold yellow pigment was found to be thermostable, but it couldn't be heated in a long time. Light destroyed the stability of the pigment. pH value showed little effect on the pigment. Some metal ion such as Fe, Cu ,Al and Fe2 destroyed the pigment.Acidity regulator, sucrose and color fixative showed little effect on the stability of the yellow pigment. Preservative and chelating agent improved the stability of yellow pigment, but not remarkably. Oxidant destroyed the stability of yellow pigment remarkably. TBHQ, BHT and Vc can stable the pigment remarkably.The anti-grease oxidation experiments indicated that carotenoids which was the main component of the pigment were effective in quenching O2 and scavenging free radials. The pigment behaved good antioxidant activity on groundnut oil and lard which were oxidized acceleratedly.It is feasible to use the extract from the petal of Marigold flower for developing new food additive which is crude, nutritional, and functional by SFE-CO2.