Sign up for email alert when new content gets added: Sign up
Anthocyanins are the secondary metabolites chiefly present in the plant cell sap and vacuole. These are mainly responsible for attractive colors in leaves, flowers, and fruits. In the human being, anthocyanins are well known for their beneficial therapeutic effects such as prevention of cancer, oxidative stress, diabetes, obesity, etc. Owing to their huge therapeutic potentials, anthocyanins are highly consumed as a nutraceuticals form, herbal medicine, and functional foods. Chemically anthocyanins are flavylium cation linked with phenolic hydroxyl, methoxyl, and sugars groups. Therefore they are also known as polyphenolics with highly aqueous solubility. The sugar-free part of anthocyanins is known as anthocyanidin. Based on the position and number of hydroxyl and methyl groups, anthocyanins were classified in several types. Till now, more than five hundred anthocyanins have been explored which are classified in nine groups and fifty-nine subgroups.
