Why are autumn leaves red in America and yellow in Europe?

Walking outdoors in the fall, the splendidly colorful leaves adorning the trees are a delight to the eye. In Europe these autumn leaves are mostly yellow, while the United States and East Asia boast lustrous red foliage. ...

Cranberries may reduce gut health problems for meat eaters

Cranberries are called a superfood for a reason. Reportedly packed with fibre and more antioxidants than any other fruits and berries, cranberries are lauded for their many health benefits. They are said to boost your immune ...

Genetically modified anthocyanin-expressing citrus developed

Anthocyanins, pigments that give plants their red, blue, or purple hues, are not typically produced in citrus fruits grown under tropical or subtropical conditions. Now, scientists have genetically engineered a lime that ...

Le Rouge et le Noir: Where the black dahlia gets its color

The molecular mechanisms whereby a spectrum of dahlias, from white to yellow to red to purple, get their colour are already well known, but the black dahlia has hitherto remained a mystery. Now, a study published in BioMed ...

Genetic engineering tool generates antioxidant-rich purple rice

Researchers in China have developed a genetic engineering approach capable of delivering many genes at once and used it to make rice endosperm—seed tissue that provides nutrients to the developing plant embryo—produce ...

Lace plants explain programmed cell death

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a highly regulated process that occurs in all animals and plants as part of normal development and in response to the environment. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal ...

New plant research solves a colorful mystery

Research led by scientists at the John Innes Centre has solved a long-standing mystery by deducing how and why strange yet colourful structures called 'anthocyanic vacuolar inclusions' occur in some plants.

page 1 from 4

Anthocyanin

Anthocyanins (also anthocyans; from Greek: ἀνθός (anthos) = flower + κυανός (kyanos) = blue) are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that may appear red, purple, or blue according to pH. They belong to a parent class of molecules called flavonoids synthesized via the phenylpropanoid pathway; they are odorless and nearly flavorless, contributing to taste as a moderately astringent sensation. Anthocyanins occur in all tissues of higher plants, including leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and fruits. Anthoxanthins are their clear, white to yellow counterparts occurring in plants. Anthocyanins are derivatives of anthocyanidins which include pendant sugars.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA