Health concerns associated with synthetic dyes and colorants have fostered the use of natural colouring materials for food applications. With this view, a product was developed under the brand name ‘Shroots’ with support from DBT.
Shroots was developed by extracting natural colorant/dye from the flower petals of Butea monosperma (Family-Fabaceae) plant under eco-friendly and organic solvent free approach. IPR on ‘process for production of food-grade dye/colorant powder from flower petals of Butea Monosperma (Lam.) Kuntze’ is applied via India patent application no. 202211005755. The product is completely soluble in water, therefore, reinforcing the absence of biomass. The product imparts saffron colour to food matrix and others. The technology has been licenced to Vexcel Upkram Pvt. Ltd., Ranchi, Jharkhand on 29/11/2022 through Biotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL). The product is currently available on ‘Amazon’.