Natural pigments: Carotenoids, anthocyanins, and betalains - Characteristics, biosynthesis, processing, and stability

Pigments are present in all living matter and provide attractive colors and play basic roles in the development of organisms. Human beings, like most animals, come in contact with their surroundings through color, and things can or cannot be acceptable based on their color characteristics. This revi ew presents the basic information about pigments focusing attention on the natural ones; it emphasizes the principal plant pigments: carotenoids, anth ocyanins, and betalains. Special considerations are given to their salient characteristics; to their biosynthesis, taking into account the biochemical and molecular biology information generated in their elucidation; and to t he processing and stability properties of these compounds as food colorants .