Studies on Valuable Pigments from Florets of Safflower (C. tinctorius L.,) and Their Identification by TLC Method

Ayesha Sultana and S. Y. Anwer

Department of Genetics, Osmania University. Hyderabad, India.

ABSTRACT: India is the largest producer of safflower in the world with highest acerage. It is one of the humanity;s oldest crop cultivated mainly for oil from the seeds and redissh dye from the flowers. Intrest in this crop has been rekindled in the last few years because of the medicinal importances of the safflower florets . In china it is being grown exclusively for its flower’s as they are usedfor the treatment of many illnesses as well as in the preparation of “Green Tea“. Medicinal importance of the florets are mainly attributedto the presences of two major pigments i.e carthamin and safflower yellow (carthamidin). Most of the work is confined to the Chinese and Iranian Genotypes, there is no systematic report available on the isolation and characteriztion of florets pigments for Indian Genotypes. Therefore, the present study is aimed at isolation and characterization of carthamin and carthamidin (yellow pigment) in the four Indian Genotypes.

KEYWORDS: Safflower florets; Pigments; TLC

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