Copigmentation is a phenomenon where pigmentation due to

anthocyanidin Anthocyanidins are common plant pigments, the aglycones of anthocyanins. They are based on the flavylium cation, an oxonium ion, with various groups substituent, substituted for its hydrogen atoms. They generally change color from red through p ...

s is reinforced by the presence of other colorless

flavonoid Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids ...

s known as cofactors or “copigments”. This occurs by the formation of a non-covalently-linked

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

Examples

;Flowers An example is the bluish purple flowers of the Japanese garden iris ('' Iris ensata''). The characteristic floral jade coloration of '' Strongylodon macrobotrys'' has been shown to be an example of copigmentation, a result of the presence of malvin (the anthocyanin) and saponarin (a flavone glucoside) in the ratio 1:9.Greenish blue flower colour of Strongylodon macrobotrys. Kosaku Takeda, Aki Fujii, Yohko Senda and Tsukasa Iwashina, Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, Volume 38, Issue 4, August 2010, Pages 630–633, ;Berries It is a phenomenon observed in the berry color of the porcelain berry ('' Ampelopsis glandulosa''). ;Food Part of the color of red wine can be due to the copigmentation phenomenon. Copigmentation is only important during the early stages of a wine's age. Anthocyanins begin to polymerize with other wine compounds, such as hydroxycinnamic acids, tannins, glyceraldehyde or proteins, to form more complex structures with covalent C–C bonds.Transformation of stacked π–π-stabilized malvidin-3-O-glucoside — Catechin complexes towards polymeric structures followed by anisotropy decay study. Sándor Kunsági-Máté, Bianca May, Christopher Tschiersch, Dirk Fetzer, Ibolya Horváth, László Kollár, Martin Pour Nikfardjam, Food Research International, Volume 44, Issue 1, January 2011, Pages 23–27,

References

External links

Copigmentation reactions and color stability of berry anthocyanins. Academic dissertation by Maarit Rein, Helsinki 2005
{{Anthocyanidin Pigmentation Anthocyanidins Plant physiology

Examples

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External links