Enzymatic conversion of precarthamin to carthamin by a purified enzyme from the yellow petals of safflower.

Precarthamin, a yellow precursor of carthamin, was efficiently isolated from the yellow petals of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L. ) with Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography and preparative HPLC, and identified with UV-vis and NMR spectrometry. The UV-vis spectrum of precarthamin showed lambda(max) of 238 and 406 nm in MeOH. The molar extinction coefficients of precarthamin at 406 nm in MeOH and 50 mM citrate buffer (pH 5.0) were 59 000 M(-)(1) cm(-)(1) and 45 400 M(-)(1) cm(-)(1), respectively. The isolated and structurally identified precarthamin was converted to a red pigment by a homogeneously purified enzyme from the immature petals of safflower in 50 mM citrate buffer (pH 5.0). The enzymatically converted red pigment was identified as carthamin, a red pigment of safflower by TLC, HPLC, and UV-vis spectral analysis.