These types of natural pigments play an important role in plant reproduction because they attract pollinators and seed dispersers by presenting attractive colors. The development of flavylium-based systems is also described throughout this Review for emergent applications to explore some of the physical-chemical properties of the multistate of species generated by these compounds.Īnthocyanins are the most frequently studied flavylium dyes because they are the largest class of water-soluble compounds present in the plant kingdom and are responsible for a range of colors in plants, from orange-red to purple-blue hues. This Review provides an overview of the chemistry of flavylium-based compounds, in particular, the synthetic and enzymatic approaches and mechanisms reported in the literature for obtaining different classes of pigments, their physical-chemical properties in relation to their pH-dependent equilibria network, and their chemical and enzymatic degradation. During the past few decades, there has been increasing interest among chemists in synthesizing different flavylium compounds that mimic natural structures but with different substitution patterns that present a variety of spectroscopic characteristics in view of their applications in different industrial fields. Flavylium compounds include a large variety of natural compound classes, namely, anthocyanins, 3-deoxyanthocyanidins, auronidins, and their respective aglycones as well as anthocyanin-derived pigments (e.g., pyranoanthocyanins, anthocyanin-flavan-3-ol dimers).
Flavylium compounds are a well-known family of pigments because they are prevalent in the plant kingdom, contributing to colors over a wide range from shades of yellow-red to blue in fruits, flowers, leaves, and other plant parts.