Study on extraction and stability of pigment from lagerstroe mia specious flower

Extraction conditions, basic properties and stability of the pigment from lagerstroe mia specious flower were investigated in this paper. It was tested that the effects of pH value, temperature, light, oxidant, reducer, kinds of metal ions, and food additives on stability of the pigment. The result showed that good yield of pigment could be obtained by acid extraction: use the aqueous solution including 0.1% hydrochloric acid and 99.7% alcohol (v:v=1:1) as extractive reagent, extracting for 5 hours under the room temperature. The pigment is classified to water-soluble pigment, alcohol-soluble pigment, for which pH value has significant effects on the tone of pigment. And its maximum absorption wavelength was 250.0nm. It is stable below 60℃ and room-temperature under the acidic condition, but sensitive to oxidant. The pigment has a good resistance to light, reducing agent. Most metal ions (except Fe3+ and Sn2+) have no bad effects on the pigment. Some common food additives, such as glucose, sucrose, starch, citric acid, salt, sodium benzoate, having no harmful effect on it.