A new molecular mechanism of blue color development with protocyanin, a supramolecular pigment from cornflower, Centaurea cyanus

✍ Scribed by Tadao Kondo; Minoru Ueda; Minoru Isobe; Toshio Goto

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 269 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0040-4039
• DOI: 10.1016/s0040-4039(98)01858-9

✦ Synopsis

Protocyanin (1), a blue pigment of Centaurea cyanus, is composed of six molecules each of malonylflavone (2) and succinylcyanin (3), complexed with magnesium and ferric ions. The blue color of 1 is developed by an LMCT interaction between anthocyanin and ferric ion, rather than arising from the formation of a simple anhydrobase anion of the chromophore. The supramolecular structure of 1 was elucidated.