ANALYSES OF COLORING CONSTITUENTS IN COMM ERCIAL PAPRIKA COLOR BY HPLC

Twenty-four paprika colors, which are commercially available as food c olorants in japan, were analyzed by reversed-phase HPLC with the gradi ent solvent system described in the legend to Fig. 1. The analyzed pap rika colors were classified into two groups on the basis of their HPLC profiles. One group consisted of colors originating from Spain (15 sa mples) and three other countries (3 samples). The highest peak in any chromatogram of this group was c1 or b5 (beta-carotene) and the number of peaks which showed 40% height or more relative to the highest peak was about 5. The other group consisted of colors originating from Chi na (5 samples). The major peaks of this group were c1, c3, c5 and b5 a nd the number of peaks which showed 40% height or more was about 10. T he compounds corresponding to the peaks b2, c0, c1 and c3 were isolate d by preparative TLC and HPLC, and characterized by LC/MS and NMR. The spectroscopic data revealed that b2, c0, c1 and c3 were 3'-O-myristoy lcapsanthin, dilauroylcapsanthin, lauroylmyristoylcapsanthin and dimyr istoylcapsanthin, respectively.