Enhanced Yield of Food Colourant Annatto from Seeds of Bixa orellana L.: The Efficacy of Polyamines Floral Spray

Annatto is one of the important natural food colourant widely used in dairy industry. The efficiency of polyamines on augmentation of annatto pigment production in field cultivated Bixa orellana L. (Achiote) crop has been investigated. Analysis of annatto pigment profile in seeds of harvested fruits indicates an increase in annatto pigment content upon foliar treatment with the three polyamines viz, putrescine, spermidine and spermine over the untreated control plants. The augmentation of total pigment level was in the range of 16-72, 27.9-83.7 and 34.5-70.79 % for floral spray of spermidine, spermine and putrescine respectively over that of water sprayed control flowers of B. orellana plant. Similarly, bixin content was 20.9-69, 36.2-56.15, 45.72-65.32 % for spermidine, spermine and putrescine respectively over control flowers of Bixa plant. The best response for enhanced annatto pigment content (4.17 %) at 60 days after flowering and bixin (3.54 %) was evident with 2.5 mu M of spermine treatment, next best being 1 mu M of putrescine. This ensures polyamines as an agriculturally important phytochemical, which is an easily adoptable methodology for enhancing annatto pigment yield in the standing crop, for commercial purposes.