Abstract

AN OVERVIEW TO SOME NATURAL COLOURING AGENTS USED IN PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATIONS

Shahare Hitesh V.*, Kothari Lokesh P., Kharabe Ganesh P., Mugdiya Yogesh N.Gedam Shweta S.

Abstract

The worldwide demand for natural dyes is nowadays of great interest due to the increased awareness on the therapeutic properties of natural dyes in public. Natural dyes are derived from naturally occurring sources such as plants, insects, animals and minerals. Several synthetic colorants have been banned because they cause allergy-like symptoms or are carcinogens. Among the all natural dyes, plant-based pigments have wide range of medicinal values. The present review, describes the detail information about basic chemistry of the major pigments and their medicinal importance found in naturally occurring dye yielding plants, which are helpful to further development of pharmaceutical formulation.

Keywords: Natural dyes, Colouring agents, Pigments, Chromogen.