Natural Colorant for Foods and Cosmetics from Local Plants

• Main Author: S.H. Mohd-Setapar
• Format: Conference Paper
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Halal > Natural colorant > Food > Cosmetic > Emulsifier > Betanin
• Online Access: http://ddms.usim.edu.my/handle/123456789/6128
• Institution: Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia

The solubility of natural color from local plants by using emulsification was investigated. Currently, synthetic colors in foods and cosmetics were harmful because it can cause allergic reaction. Therefore, natural colors from plant extracts are used to incorporate natural pigment and edible-based material for produce a good quality colorant. In this research, the natural colors that have to be studied are obtained from plants which are butterfly pea, roselle, dragon fruit and pandanus. These natural colors are chosen because it contains natural vitamin and minerals compared to synthetic color. However, the characteristic of natural color is water based while formulation of cosmetic is oil based. Therefore the study on the solubility of natural color in oil by using emulsion process is needed to find the suitable emulsifiers. This way accomplished by preparing several emulsion system utilizing coconut oil as lipophilic phase and natural color from plant extracts as hydrophilic phase. The emulsifiers used were Glyceryl stearate, Glyceryl monostearate, Span 20, Span 40, span 60 and Span 80. The emulsions were prepared in three ratios of emulsifier to plant extracts; (1:10, 1:20 and 1:30). The solubility of these plant extracts in emulsions was investigated. Span 80 is the best emulsifier due to the highest solubility of plant extracts emulsion and dragon fruit exhibited the best stability in these emulsion because of its chemical component (betanin) that can be stable in the pH range of 4 to 5.