Pharmaceutical applications of natural dyes and pigments

The market for natural pigments has ballooned substantially as more and more consumers are concerned about their daily diet. These bioactive pigments are very lucrative for both food industries and consumers as they have a plethora of health benefits. Plants and microorganisms are the main sources of these natural pigments. Recently, lots of edible pigments from flower and fungi sources are explored. Although scientific studies were scarce, recently due to newly explored edible pigments myriad of studies are being conducted. Dyes and pigments are used in pharmaceutical formulations as excipients. The main application of coloring agents is to give a lucrative appearance to the pharmaceutical products. Other than appearance there are other important functional applications of coloring agents that can be seen in the pharma industry and will be discussed vastly in this chapter. In the pharmaceutical industry, still synthetic dyes and pigments share most of the market but there are several naturally derived colors that are also coming into the scene due to their nontoxic trait. In this chapter, the usage of some of the naturally derived dyes and pigments is also discussed briefly.