Introduction of Amaranthus Red Colourant：

Amaranth is a genus of amaranth in the family Amaranthaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of America and southern Asia. Its earliest identity would have been as a wild vegetable to feed the hungry.

Wild amaranth is so adaptable and vigorous that in Chinese folklore, it is not only eaten as a wild vegetable, but also used as a traditional Chinese medicine or fed to livestock. Amaranth is grown in the United States and India as livestock feed. In addition, some amaranths have been domesticated into ornamental plants, such as the five-colored amaranth.

The history of amaranth as an artificially grown vegetable dates back to the Song and Yuan dynasties. The most common amaranth on the market today is red amaranth, also called tricolor amaranth, wild goose red, and rice cereal. It is more common in the south of China, and in Hubei, people call it “sweat vegetable”, and it is usually available in summer and autumn. It is characterized by purplish-red center of the leaves and often red rootstock. Besides red amaranth, there are also green amaranth (also called sesame amaranth, white amaranth) and all-red amaranth.

The color of red amaranth soup is bright and can be eaten with rice, but it is difficult to wash off if it is accidentally spilled on clothes. The pigment in red amaranth soup is amaranth red, a water-soluble pigment, which belongs to anthocyanin group, the main component of which is amaranth glucoside and a small amount of beet glucoside (beet red). Although it has a similar color to anthocyanin, the chemical structure is quite different, so the chemical properties are relatively more stable. Amaranth red also has weaknesses, such as not being able to withstand prolonged heating and not being very fond of alkaline environments. In an acidic environment, amaranth red is a bright purple-red color, and it turns yellow when the pH exceeds 10.

Nowadays, people extract the pigment of amaranth for food industry, mainly for candy, pastry, drinks, etc.