Application
Since ancient times, gardenia flowers and fruits have been used as dyes. In Yunnan, China, ethnic minorities have a custom of dyeing rice cakes with gardenia, and in Japan, gardenia extract is used to dye longevity noodles.
1. Food IndustryTraditionally, gardenia yellow pigment is mainly used for coloring flour products. In recent years, taking advantage of its excellent dyeing properties for proteins and starches, gardenia yellow pigment has also been widely used in candies, honey, ice cream, and other foods. Regarding the comprehensive development of gardenia yellow pigment, Japan has already formulated gardenia yellow and gardenia blue pigments into a green pigment, achieving good economic benefits. Gardenia yellow pigment has excellent dyeing ability for proteins and starches, and can be widely used in various foods such as pastries, candies, flour, beverages, jellies, biscuits, and ice cream.
2. Printing and Dyeing IndustryXi Deng et al. studied the dyeing effect of gardenia yellow pigment on silk and nylon fabrics, describing in detail the changes in hue during dyeing, laying the foundation for the application of gardenia yellow pigment in the field of fabric dyeing.
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3. Cosmetics IndustryLiu Xinmin discussed the feasibility of applying gardenia yellow pigment to cosmetics, believing that gardenia yellow pigment already meets the conditions for application in the cosmetics industry, and discussed its specific conditions and scope of application in the cosmetics industry.
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4. Pharmaceutical IndustryIn addition to containing pigment components that can color, gardenia yellow pigment also contains crocin and geniposide, which have extremely high medical value and are expensive, such as promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, relieving pain, and lowering blood pressure. Therefore, it can be applied to the pharmaceutical industry.
Definition
ChEBI: Crocin-1 is a diester that is crocetin in which both of the carboxy groups have been converted to their gentiobiosyl esters. It is one of the water-soluble yellow-red pigments of saffron and is used as a spice for flavouring and colouring food. Note that in India, the term 'Crocin' is also used by GlaxoSmithKline as a brand-name for paracetamol. It has a role as an antioxidant, a food colouring, a plant metabolite and a histological dye. It is a diester, a disaccharide derivative and a diterpenoid. It is functionally related to a beta-D-gentiobiosyl crocetin and a gentiobiose.
