Betalains
Specific molecules
The red-purple of beet and prickly pear — a pigment that has nothing to do with anthocyanins despite the color.
Only two botanical families carry them, and they never coexist with anthocyanins in the same plant.
Effects and benefits
The red of beets is a family of pigments of its own, unrelated to that of blueberries. In about one person in ten, it turns urine pink, harmlessly. Measured in the laboratory, it is one of the natural pigments that neutralize free radicals best.
Betalains contain nitrogen, unlike anthocyanins. Beets, red chard, prickly pear, amaranth and dragon fruit chose this red.
Pink urine after beets, beeturia, affects about 10 to 14% of people. It depends on stomach acidity and on iron: it is more common in people who lack iron (Mitchell, 2001).
In the laboratory, betanin traps free radicals at low doses (Gliszczyńska-Świgło et al., 2006); in humans, the effect of betalains themselves is little studied, beside that of beet nitrates.
Sources: Mitchell, Clin Chim Acta, 2001 · Gliszczyńska-Świgło et al., 2006
Where to find it (24)
- Achacana
- Airampo
- Amaranth
- Barbados gooseberry (ora-pro-nóbis)
- Barrel cactus
- Beet
- Carapari
- Chende
- Cholla
- Copao
- Dragon fruit flowers
- Giant cardon
- Jiotilla
- Mammillaria
- Nopal
- Peruvian apple cactus
- Pitaya
- Pitaya dulce
- Prickly pear
- Saguaro
- Sanky
- Strawberry hedgehog cactus
- Tanhua (queen of the night)
- Tetecha