Anthocyanins

Anthocyanins are the largest group of water-soluble pigments in the plant kingdom and belong to the family of compounds known as flavonoids that are synthesized by plants as part of their secondary metabolism. Based on their chemical characteristics, flavonoids are divided into different subclasses: flavonols, flavanols, anthocyanidins, flavanones, flavones and isoflavones.

Anthocyanins are colored water-soluble pigments belonging to the phenolic group. They occur primarily as glycosides or acylglycosides of their respective aglycone anthocyanidins. These pigments, naturally present in fruits and vegetables, provide color and promote health benefits to consumers due to their antioxidant capacity.

The different anthocyanin conjugates absorb light at about 500 nm and are responsible for the red, blue and purple color of fruits and vegetables.

Among the anthocyanin pigments, cyanidin-3-glucoside is the major anthocyanin found in most of the plants. The colored anthocyanin pigments have been traditionally used as a natural food colorant. The color and stability of these pigments are influenced by pH, light, temperature, and structure.

Anthocyanins have important functions in plant physiology. They are believed to play a major role in both pollination and seed dispersal. Anthocyanins have been shown to be strong antioxidants and may exert a wide range of health benefits through antioxidant or other mechanisms. Several studies have shown that anthocyanins display a wide range of biological activities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anti-carcinogenic activities.
Anthocyanins

Definition of Vegetable

A commonly given definition is that a vegetable is a crop used to make vegetable salad. Vegetables are plants foods that include various edible parts such as leaves, shoots, roots, tubes, flower, and stems.

They normally do not include fruit. However, tomatoes and olives which are technically fruit, are include as vegetable , because of their culinary role is related more to vegetables than the fruits, for example , a garden salad almost includes tomatoes and sometimes olives, but it never includes any other fruits.

Vegetables are a horticultural crop. Other horticultural food crops include small fruits and tree fruits, which are usually grown as perennials. Vegetable crops may be either annuals or perennials.

Vegetables belong to important class of foods that supply us with many nutritive requirements, including proteins, starches, fats, minerals, sugars, and vitamins.

Vegetables also supply bulk to the diets well as a large variety of flavor and odors that provide the knowledgeable chef with a repertoire of culinary tricks. On a world basis, vegetable make up a considerable crop being consumed in the fresh state.

Vegetable crops can be classified into 3 main groups according to the plant part that is most commonly eaten.
*Fruit and seed vegetable
*Leaf and stem vegetable
*Root and tuber vegetable
Definition of Vegetable

The Term of Vegetable

The Term of Vegetable
The term ‘vegetable’ in its broadest sense refers to any kind of plant life or plant product; it usually refers to the fresh edible portion of an herbaceous plant consumed either raw or cooked.

The edible portion may be a root like a rutabaga, beet, carrot and sweet potato; a tuber or storage stem such as potato and taro, the stem as in asparagus and kohrabi, a bud such as Brussels sprouts; a bulb such as onion and garlic a petiole or leafstock like celery and rhubarb; a leaf such as cabbage, lettuce, parsley, spinach and chive; an immature flower like cauliflower, broccoli and artichoke; a seed like pea and Lima beans; the immature fruit like brinjal (egg-plant), cucumber and sweet corn (maize) or the mature fruit like tomato and chili.

Those plants or plant parts that are usually consumed with the main course of a meal are popularly regarded as vegetables while those mainly used as desserts are considered fruits.

Actually cooked vegetables constitute our principle meals whole fruit are consumed as desserts.

Thus cucumber and tomato are botanically fruits but they are mainly vegetables.
The Term of Vegetable