Annatto

Annatto is the name for a spice and as a food color ( E 160b ) used reddish- yellow seeds of Orleans tree ( botanical name: Bixa orellana ). Other names are Achote, bixin, annatto, Ruku, Anatto; the French name is Roucou, the Spanish achiote or Achote, the Brazilian urucum.

The plant occurs in the Caribbean and tropical South America. Its seeds are small, red and triangular and have an earthy, bitter taste. They found already among the Maya as a spice and coloring agent use, such as textile and body paint, besides also in religious rites, where they were associated with the rain; even as the currency they were used. For indigenous peoples of the seeds is used today varied, especially for medical purposes, such as as an aphrodisiac, sunscreen and insect repellent or as a digestive agent.

In Europe, annatto is less known, but is used among other things for coloring boiled eggs and cheese, such as in the French varieties Reblochon, mimolette, Mamirolle or Fol Epi, the Danish Blue Note, the English Shropshire Blue, Cheddar, and also isolated the German and Dutch Gouda.

In Brazil, annatto, called depending on the region, colorau, annatto or Colorífico and used for coloring and flavoring a lot of meat and fish dishes. In Mexican cuisine, it is below the Spanish name achiote known.

The seeds are very hard either treated with hot water to dissolve ingredients, or several times a finely ground.

Chemical components

Annatto contains xanthophylls and oxygen-containing carotenoids. It is a mixture of the dyes bixin and norbixin, the latter being the saponification of bixin. Depending on the extraction process from the plant outweighs one of the two substances. If sodium hydroxide is used for extraction, is also formed as the sodium salt of the norbixin. Annatto is considered to be harmless to health.

Annatto seeds contain vitamin E, in an unusual isomer - composition consisting of 90% of delta-tocotrienol. Because of its anti - angiogenic properties and other delta -tocotrienol is currently playing a role in cancer research.