Extracting Pigments from Palmyrah Fruit Pulp (Borassus flabellifer L.) for the Production of Natural Colorants for Food

Palmyrah (Borassus flabellifer L) fruit pulp has an appeasing bright yellow or orange color which has been attributed to the presence of pro-vitamin A carotenoids of medicinal and nutritional value. Non-toxic, natural food colorants are in demand nowadays since the synthetic pigments produce many adverse health effects. This study is aimed at extracting the pigments from Palmyrah fruit pulp in the interest of producing natural food colorants. Here atmospheric liquid extraction with maceration/ solvent extraction was employed and the extraction procedure was optimized. The pigments were extracted using 80% methanol (v/v) and dichloromethane in 2: 1 (v/v)  ratio and 10% KOH (w/v) at 35°C for 30min. The optimized method yielded 3ppm b-carotene per g of fruit pulp as determined by UV spectroscopy and thin layer chromatography. &nbsp