Skip to main content

Betalain and Anthocyanin, Medicinal Red Pigments

It was an honor and a pleasure to spend the first hour of my volunteer shift attending the doctoral dissertation of now-Dr. Alex Crum. She was the first person to show me the ropes of watering plants at the University of Minnesota's Conservatory Botanical Collection. In July 2021, as the covid-19 lockdown was beginning to end, and volunteers were allowed back into service at the greenhouse. I was happy to be one of them. Dr. A was gracious and patient with my first day of instruction as a volunteer.

Since then, Dr. A has completed her Ph.D. thesis, studying - the the best of my understanding - the chemical and ethnobotanical details of the compound betalain. This red-colored chemical is made by a limited number of plants in the plant kingdom - specifically, they are made in the carnation family of Caryophyllaceae. But when betalian is present, those plants tend to be used by humans all over the world for medicinal purposes. Examples of betalian-rich plants include amaranthus (anti-malarial drugs), and beetroot (which has anti-inflammatory properties).

Although red in color, betalain is not the main red chemical in plants. Anthocyanins are the predominant red color, as seen in the photo I captured today of the ginger flower below (Globba winitii, mauve dancing lady ginger):

Mauve dancing ladies ginger (Globba winitii), the red color is from anthocyanin rather than betalian

After attending Alex's dissertation, my assignment was to clean a small fig tree - Ficus dammaropsis - which is known for its very large fruit, which can measure up to 6 inches in diameter. This particular tree was about 12 ft tall, but very spindly. I was able to lift the pot down from the bench to the floor where I could access and clean all the the leaves. The leaves are also very large, up to 3 ft in length and 2 ft in width. This variety of fig tree is native to Southeast Asia.

Ficus dammaropsis

Two large figs of Ficus dammaropsis, 4-inch diameter

After cleaning the sooty mold and scale insects off of the fig tree, my next assignment for the day was to rearrange the hanging baskets of succulent plants and cacti. Special metal hooks of variable length were available to stagger the pots for a more interesting appearance while preserving for the plants below them access to the sunlight.

Hooks and ladders were used to rearrange hanging baskets of succulent plants

 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thrip control: peppermint and clove

Here's a question: how many natural plant scents do you find repellent? The one that comes to the top of my mind is the scent of the newly blossomed corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanum . It smells very much like the name implies. If I could produce a scratch-and-sniff blog post, I would be tempted. The odor is horrible to humans, but sweet to some flying insects which are also attracted to rotting flesh. But perhaps you cannot tolerate the scent of clove, or eucalyptus? Insect pests are like us in this respect. Pests in the garden and greenhouse Insects, arachnids, fungi, and viruses. Their numbers are legion. The battle is constant. The most effective weapon is vigilance. In addition to vigilance, there are biological controls made from natural compounds which are generally non-toxic to humans. Included in this category are essential oils. For example cinnamon, rosemary, sage, neem, clove, peppermint and many others. These oils are repellent, and even toxic, to many of the pests...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nerding out in Japan, autumn of 2025

We celebrated a bit of good news in our household with a spontaneously planned trip to Japan in November. Completely unintended, the trip coincided with the full regalia of fall colors. Particularly notable were the popular Japanese maples of every size and variety with their brilliant reds, yellow, oranges, greens, and rusts. But happy accident, we learned a few things about the art of sculpting full-grown trees - niwaki - and how to protect plants from ice and snow over the winter - yukizuri . Winter is coming The fall colors were still in full swing with crowds of adoring leaf-peepers - like me - filling the famous gardens and parks. Despite the crowds, there was already serious preparations for the coming winter. Fancifully pruned trees - the tree-sculpting art of niwaki similar to bonsai -  were being trussed with ropes and propped up on long poles . As newcomers, the preparations seemed extremely odd, as if some hurricane was about to shred the life out of every branch an...
2 comments
Read more

New roots for an old soul: extreme 30-foot plant cutting

A large contingent of students and staff was gathered when I arrived for my volunteer shift at the Conservatory Greenhouse at the University of Minnesota on the St. Paul campus. The crowd was on hand to help with the gentle felling of the largest plant in the greenhouse, decades old and 30+ feet tall. Native to the island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, this fern -- S phaeropteris intermedia the largest of all tree ferns -- has been happily growing in the tropical room of the greenhouse for a number of years, to the point its fronds are brushing up against the glass ceiling panes of the roof.  Tree fern fronds brushing against the roof of the U of M greenhouse Rather than cut the tree down and lose the specimen, the staff decided to try to save the tree. The process would involve cutting off the top half of the tree and reinserting it into a new space in the soil of the greenhouse floor. Months of planning and preparation A well-known technique was used, referred to as ai...
Post a Comment
Read more