Natural deep eutectic solvents providing enhanced stability of natural colorants from safflower (Carthamus tinctorius)

A certain combination of natural products in the solid state becomes liquid, so called natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES). Recently, they have been considered promising new green solvents for foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals due to their unique solvent power which can dissolve many non-water-soluble compounds and their low toxicity. However, in addition to the features as solvents, the stabilisation ability of NADES for compounds is important for their further applications. In the study, the stability analysis demonstrates that natural pigments from safflower are more stable in sugar-based NADES than in water or 40% ethanol solution. Notably, the stabilisation capacity of NADES can be adjusted by reducing water content with increasing viscosity. The strong stabilisation ability is due to the formation of strong hydrogen bonding interactions between solutes and NADES molecules. The stabilising ability of NADES for phenolic compounds shows great promise for their applications in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.