Comparison of the Half‐Lives of the Anthocyanins in the Juice of Crowberry, Empetrum nigrum

The contents of the 12 anthocyanins in crowberry juice were followed during storage at room temperature by varying the content of oxygen, ascorbic acid, Al 3+ and Fe 3+ ions. The half‐lives of the individual anthocyanins were 4–6 wk in untreated juice. When 90% of the oxygen had been removed, the stability improved by a factor 3–4. The glucosides and galactosides had longer half‐lives than the arabinosides, confidence of the differences varying from 90 to 99,9%. The most stable were the galactosides and glucosides of delphinidin and petunidin (confidence 95–99.9%), peonidin and cyanidin arabinosides being the least stable. Fe 3+ and Al 3+ supplementations improved the stability of all the anthocyanins. The Fe 3+ supplementation increased the stability of peonidin and malvidin galactosides and arabinosides most effectively.