Abstract Anthocyanins derived from purple carrots were extracted, and identified by using HPLC.
Extracted pigments from purple carrots are used as alternative natural red colorants for preparing
hard candy and sweet jelly and also red carrot pigment used as natural antioxidant on sunflower oil
to delay the rancidity of sunflower oil. Purple carrots contain 168.7 mg anthocyanin/100 g on fresh
weight basis, where the major constituents were Cyanidin-3-xylosyl-glucosyl-galactoside acylated
with ferulic acid (33.65%) followed by Cyanidin-3-xylosyl-glucosyl-galactoside acylated with coumaric
acid (29.85%) and Cyanidin-3-xylosyl-galactoside (28.70%) as determined by HPLC. Dextrin was
the best carrier for purple carrots anthocyanin pigment followed by cellulose, soluble starch and glucose
respectively. On the other hand, the highest pigment color stability of anthocyanin derived from
purple carrots was obtained at pH values ranged between 1.0 and 4.0 and temperatures ranged
between 40 and 80 C, while the degradation ratio of anthocyanin being 15% of total pigments after
180 min at 100 C. Antioxidant activities of anthocyanin from purple carrots were assessed by determining
peroxide value on sunflower oil during 7 days at 60 C. Sunflower oil contained 1000 ppm purple
carrots extract showed lower peroxide value being (7.90) than using 200 ppm synthetic antioxidant
(BHT) (8.38) meq/kg. Analysis of variance for sensory evaluation of prepared hard candy and sweet
jelly indicated that there were no significant differences for hard candy contains 0.30% and sweet jelly
0.20% anthocyanins pigments from purple carrots and control hard candy and sweet jelly