THE STUDY OF ANTHOCYANINS OF CORN WITH DARK GRAIN

Abstract

In corn grains, anthocyanins pigments accumulate – belonging to the class of flavanoids, products of the secondary metabolism of plants and which are low molecular weight antioxidants. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown that the use of foods rich in anthocyanins leads to a significant reduction in diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular and oncological diseases. Compared to an equal amount of vegetables and fruits containing anthocyanins, more of them are present in the grain in bound form. Participating in the metabolism in the lower parts of the gastrointestinal tract, they have a beneficial effect on maintaining health. To analyze the total content and determine the composition of anthocyanins in grains of 21 samples of corn from the collection of the National Gene Bank of Azerbaijan, in order to identify promising samples in breeding to increase the content of anthocyanins, we used the method of high-performance liquid chromatography with reverse phase (HPLC) with spectrophotometric and mass spectrometric detection. The grains of the test samples identified mainly cyanidin-3-glucoside and pelargonidin-3-glucoside, as well as the isomeric products of their mono- and diacylation with malonic acid. Pelargonidin-3-glucoside derivatives prevailed in the grain extracts of some of the samples studied. Corn samples were selected as starting material for further breeding work to create local forms of corn with improved nutritional and therapeutic properties.