Authors : N. Fatahi , J. Carapetian and R. Heidari
Abstract: Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is a composite plant. It’s flowers are an essential dye-stuff for preparing edible carthamin and safflower yellow dyes, which has been increasingly applied as a colour additive for processed foods as well as cosmetic rouges and medicinal tablets. A technique for the analysis of carthamin and Carthamus yellow is described. The teqnique involves the following 3 steps: Extraction, measurement of visible absorption spectrum of the color and thin-layer chromatography. Dried safflower powder was used for extraction of water soluble yellow and the water insoluble carthamin was obtainable through alkaline extraction, acidification and cellulose adsorption. The pigment extracts were identified by using thin-layer chromatography and spectrophotometery. Spectrophotometeric absorption spectra in invisible wavelength showed the absorption maxima for carthamin red at 520 nm in acetone extraction. Similarly water soluble safflower yellow showed 405 nm absorption maxima. The Rf values were measured by thin-Layer chromatography. Because these dyes are natural and have clinical effects, they are potentially useful for dying different food products.
N. Fatahi , J. Carapetian and R. Heidari , 2008. Spectrophotometric Measurement of Valuable Pigments from Petals of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) and their Identification by TLC Method. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 3: 761-763.