Chrysanthemin is an anthocyanin. It is the 3- glucoside of

cyanidin Cyanidin is a natural organic compound. It is a particular type of anthocyanidin (glycoside version called anthocyanins). It is a pigment found in many red berries including grapes, bilberry, blackberry, blueberry, cherry, chokeberry, cranber ...

Natural occurrences

Chrysanthemin can be found in the roselle plant (''Hibiscus sabdariffa'', Malvaceae), different Japanese angiosperms, ''

Rhaponticum ''Rhaponticum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. Description ''Rhaponticum'' species are perennial herbaceous plants with simple, rarely branched stems. The leaves are simple to pinnatifid. T ...

'' (Asteraceae), The fruits of the smooth arrowwood (''

Viburnum dentatum ''Viburnum dentatum'', southern arrowwood or arrowwood viburnum or roughish arrowwood, is a small shrub, native to the eastern United States and Canada from Maine south to northern Florida and eastern Texas. Like most '' Viburnum'', it has oppos ...

'', Caprifoliaceae) appear blue. One of the major pigments is cyanidin 3-glucoside, but the total mixture is very complex.

In food

Chrysanthemin has been detected in blackcurrant pomace, in European elderberry, in red raspberries, in

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu a ...

seed coats, in

Victoria plum The Victoria plum is a type of English plum. It has a yellow flesh with a red or mottled skin. This plum is a cultivar of the egg plum group (''Prunus domestica'' ssp. ''intermedia''). The fruit is oval or ovate in shape. The ground colour ...

, in

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-f ...

lychee Lychee (US: ; UK: ; ''Litchi chinensis''; ) is a monotypic taxon and the sole member in the genus ''Litchi'' in the soapberry family, ''Sapindaceae''. It is a tropical tree native to Southeast and Southwest China (the Guangdong, Fujian, Yun ...

and açaí. It is found in

red orange The blood orange is a variety of orange ( ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'') (also referred to as raspberry orange) with crimson, almost blood-colored flesh. The distinctive dark flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanins, a family of polyp ...

s and black rice. It is the major anthocyanin in purple corn (''Zea mays''). Purple corn is approved in Japan and listed in the "

Existing Food Additive List The International Numbering System for Food Additives (INS) is a European-based naming system for food additives, aimed at providing a short designation of what may be a lengthy actual name."Class Names and the International Numbering System for F ...

" as ''purple corn color''.

Biosynthesis

The biosynthesis of cyanidin 3-O-glucoside in ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Esc ...

'' was demonstrated by means of genetic engineering. In '' Arabidopsis thaliana'', a

glycosyltransferase Glycosyltransferases (GTFs, Gtfs) are enzymes (EC 2.4) that establish natural glycosidic linkages. They catalyze the transfer of saccharide moieties from an activated nucleotide sugar (also known as the "glycosyl donor") to a nucleophilic glyco ...

, UGT79B1, is involved in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. UGT79B1 protein converts cyanidin 3-O-glucoside to cyanidin 3-O-xylosyl(1→2)glucoside.

References

{{Anthocyanins Anthocyanins Flavonoid glucosides