Advances in the Extraction of Anthocyanin from Vegetables

Besides giving colour to plants, anthocyanins also have antioxidant and anti-hyperglycemic properties; hence, they are used as therapeutic source for many treatments of diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer. Many anthocyanin extraction methods such as conventional acidified water (CAW), ultrasound, microwave pre-treatment, supercritical fluid extraction and pulsed electric field (PEF) have been used. Among them, ultrasound and microwave-assisted extraction are two putative methods for extraction of anthocyanins from vegetables. They have significant advantages such as cheap, easy to be manipulated, suitable for laboratory, domestic and large-scale industrial applications, less time-consuming, matrix independent, free sample particle size, less solvent used and long-term preservation. Importantly, with those properties, they help enhance the yield of anthocyanin and also suitable for application of most vegetables from nature. Furthermore, two putative methods could serve as a sound base for future large scale production of anthocyanin with high efficient and fast rate by further investigations, modifiers and optimizations.