Plant Pigments as Drugs

Plant pigments that are responsible for their yellow, bright red, and orange color are carotenoids that play a key role in plant health. Therefore, consumption of foods that have carotenoids provide various health benefits to the human body. Different vegetables and fruits in which carotenoids are present yams, carrots, sweet potatoes, watermelon, papaya, cantaloupe, spinach, mangos, kale, tomatoes, oranges, bell peppers, etc. There are over 600 known carotenoids in nature, found in plant cells, bacteria, and algae, and that belongs to a class of phytonutrients “plant chemicals” . Xanthophyll is the molecules known as hydrocarbons and found in orange and yellow fruits and vegetables, for example, pumpkin, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, apricots and carrots. Association of word carrot with carotene will certainly relate the color of these pigments. Later class is oxygen containing molecules, found in dark leafy greens such as kale, spinach, and broccoli.Plant pigments, a generic term used to designate a large number of colored molecules, can be classified into tetrapyrroles e.g., chlorophyll and carotenoids e.g., ß carotene and xanthophyll . Of the pigments, carotenoids are fat soluble lipophilic natural pigments which are synthesized by plants and some microbes. These pigments not only play a key role in photosynthesis but are also responsible for the bright colors of various plants, fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Sheikh Ayyan Ahad "Plant Pigments as Drugs" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-6 , October 2022, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd52160.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/chemistry/other/52160/plant-pigments-as-drugs/sheikh-ayyan-ahad