An up-to-date review: differential biosynthesis mechanisms and enrichment methods for health-promoting anthocyanins of citrus fruits during processing and storage

Abstract

Anthocyanins, naturally found in citrus, play key roles in improving the qualities of citrus fruits and products. Dietary consumption of fruit-derived anthocyanins is concerned increasingly owing to health-promoting properties. However, anthocyanins are vulnerable to many physical and chemical factors during processing and storage, affecting fruit qualities and consumer acceptance. Thus, the aim of this review is to focus on main advances in chemical structures, differential biosynthesis mechanisms, enrichment methods, and bioactivities of anthocyanins in pigmented and unpigmented citrus fruits. In this review, anthocyanin species and concentrations display tissue specificity in citrus, and the chemical structures and contents of main anthocyanins are summarized. For differential biosynthesis mechanisms, the reasons why most citrus fruits lose the ability of anthocyanin biosynthesis compared with pigmented fruits, and the molecular differences of biosynthesis mechanisms in pigmented citrus fruits are both discussed in detail. Furthermore, anthocyanins’ enrichment methods (low-temperature stimulus, light irradiation, xenobiotics inductions, and ripeness influence) during processing and storage have been summarized, which achieve quality improvement by promoting structural gene expression, reducing anthocyanin-degrading enzyme activities, or altering DNA methylation status. Meantime, the health benefits of extract from pigmented citrus and their waste are mentioned, which provides a new approach for citrus waste recycling.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Chemical structures of individual anthocyanins in citrus are reviewed.

• Differential anthocyanin biosynthesis in citrus depends on mutations of Ruby genes.

• Anthocyanins are enriched in response to exogenous stimulus during storage.

• Health benefits of extract in blood oranges and their waste are summarized

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Anthocyanin biosynthesis
• citrus fruits
• gene regulation
• DNA methylation
• enrichment methods
• healthpromoting properties

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32172334) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 226-2022-00045).