ISSN-0011-1643 CCA-2662 Note Vitisin-Type Pigments: Possible Novel Food Colors Dragan Ami}, a, * Du{anka Davidovi}-Ami}, a Drago Be{lo, a and Nenad Trinajsti} b a Faculty of Agriculture, The Josip Juraj Strossmayer University, P. O. Box 719, HR–31001 Osijek, The Republic of Croatia b The Rugjer Bo{kovi} Institute, P. O. Box 180, HR–10002 Zagreb, The Republic of Croatia Received June 28, 1999; revised December 14, 1999; accepted December 15, 1999 Spectral properties of different forms of several vitisin-type pig- ments, recently found in red wines and grapes, were studied. These orange-red tone compounds seem to be promising anthocyanin based food colors. Key words: vitisin-type pigments, wine pigments, food colors INTRODUCTION There is worldwide interest in using food colorants from natural sources to replace artificial colorants. 1 Anthocyanins are the largest group of water- soluble natural pigments that have been used with some commercial suc- cess. 2 Anthocyanins are responsible for most of the red, purple, and blue col- ors exhibited by flowers, fruits, and other plant tissues. 3 However, they usu- ally incur the disadvantages of color instability, spontaneous degradation and conversion to uncolored forms under heat, light, and moderate pH. 4 Many efforts have been made to search for highly stable anthocyanins from fruit, vegetables, or ornamental plants, and to improve the stability of anthocyanins. 5 Production of anthocyanins from cell cultures has been in- vestigated. 6 Also, there is the current medical interest in anthocyanins: for example, anthocyanins possess potent antioxidant properties. 7 The presence * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. (E-mail: damic@suncokret.pfos.hr) CROATICA CHEMICA ACTA CCACAA 73 (2) 511¿516 (2000)