Annatto (Bixa orellana), a source of biocolorant for food industries: analytical review

Abstract

Bixa orellana is a vegetable species provider of biocolorant used traditionally as well in Asia, in America as in Africa. This review mainly aims at summarizing the works done about Bixa orellana seeds dye in order to define research perspectives for the species valorization. The methodology is carried out starting from a documentation centered on the relevance of the articles. In total, some 100 scientific articles have been exploited. Capitalized informations show that Bixa orellana is of great socioeconomic and nutritional importance. Its seeds provide a dye with two fractions; norbixin (water-soluble) and bixin (fat-soluble), stable especially at temperatures below 180 °C and thus constitute the only natural source of bixin, a carotenoid widely used in the food industry as a dye. The nutritional and therapeutic potentialities of seeds make the species an important agricultural holding capable to face the challenges of substitution of certain synthetic dyes with those of these seeds. Its exploitation would make it possible to palliate the pathologies related to the use of the synthetic dyes, to improve the agricultural income of the populations practicing its culture and to offer to the species, a visibility for its valorization in Africa, particularly in Benin.