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Blueberries get their name because they have a particularly unique color.
However, blue is a rare color in nature, and there are few natural organic compounds that give living things this color. So why are blueberries blue?
It turns out that scientists recently solved this puzzle, and it wasn’t the skin of the fruit.
In a study published Feb. 7 in the journal scientific progress The researchers discovered that tiny randomly placed crystals in the fruit’s waxy coating scatter light, giving blueberries their characteristic indigo-colored appearance.
Blue color rarely appears in living things. Most examples, such as bluebells, butterflies, and tropical frogs, rely on clever tricks to produce this coloration (mainly to deter predators). Even blue stones and minerals like sapphire and lapis lazuli are difficult to obtain.
And blueberries were even more of a mystery.
“The blue of a blueberry cannot be ‘extracted’ by crushing it, because blueberries are not present in the colored juice that can be squeezed from the fruit. That is why we believe that the color We knew there had to be something strange,” the researchers said.Chief researcher Rocks Middletonsaid researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK in a paper. statement.
Blueberries contain a strong pigment called anthocyanin, which gives them a deep reddish-purple color that is completely different from the indigo color of the fruit’s skin. However, like most plants, blueberries are covered with a thin layer of protective wax, which acts as a waterproof coating and barrier against infection.
Middleton’s team thought the blue hue must be coming from the outside of the fruit. So they took a sample of this wax and recrystallized it on cardboard. Happily, this resulted in the formation of an ultra-thin crystalline coating of blueberries’ trademark indigo color. When they looked closely at this layer, they found that there were randomly distributed crystal structures within the wax that scattered blue and ultraviolet light, creating the fruit’s characteristic color.
“This shows that nature has evolved to use a very neat trick: an extremely thin layer of a vital colorant,” Middleton said. “It was even more exciting to be able to recreate that color by taking wax and creating a new blue coating that no one had ever seen before.”
This discovery presents exciting opportunities for sustainable and biocompatible blue coatings and colorants. These could be used in everything from sensors to construction to car paint, the researchers said in a study. However, the widespread and little-known functions of these waxes in plants also mean that these new colorants potentially have many other beneficial properties that researchers have not yet begun to explore. To do.
The team is currently looking into whether there is an easier way to prepare and apply the wax.
“The dream is to incorporate all the functionality of this natural wax into a man-made material,” Middleton said.
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