Mirabilis jalapa as natural food dye and primary quality analysis

Book excerpt: Synthetic food colors are widely used in different types of food stuffs in India as well as in the world. Changing lifestyles across the globe have transformed food habit patterns. The instant and processed foods (junk foods) are mainly used in a variety of attractive “Synthetic food colors” by its manufacturers. The natural food pigments were extracted from the Mirabilis jalapa flowers, and leaf of Nyctaginaceae family. The extracted natural food pigments were exposed to different pH, temperature and various quality analysis. The result showed that the different parameters express as Mirabilis jalapa pigment as high stability natural food colouring agent. In the present study also an attempt has been aimed to study the Extraction, Titrable acidity, Ascorbic acid content, Phytochemical analysis and adulteration by Chromatographic methods.