Tehran University of Medical Sciences Journal of Food Safety and Hygiene 2476-3241 6 4 2021 09 25 205 220 Peerzada Hussain BARC, Zakura, Srinagar Prashant Suradkar Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Srinagar 2021 06 23 2021 09 08 Consumer demand for both natural food colorants and non-thermal methods of preservation has increased overwhelmingly during the last few decades. Preventing loss of appeal and color through non-thermal methods without compromising on quality will provide an alternative to conventional thermal methods. In the present study, irradiation of plum peel anthocyanins after extraction and purification was done in a range of 0.1 - 1.0 kGy. Results revealed that degradation was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) dependent on both time and dose of irradiation. The percentage degradation observed in the first 3 h of treatment was 9.0 – 21.0±1.2%. The maximum anthocyanin degradation recorded during 8 h of irradiation was 45.3%. Anthocyanin degradation was apparently less at 0.1 – 0.5 kGy compared to 0.6 – 1.0 kGy. The retention of anthocyanins was up to the extent of 88.8 – 62.3% in samples irradiated at 0.1 – 0.5 kGy. Comparison of the individual anthocyanin indicated that diglucoside anthocyanins were stable towards irradiation than monoglucoside anthocyanins. For monoglucoside anthocyanins, a 50% decrease was observed as the irradiation treatment exceeded 0.6 kGy. A close comparison of the data revealed that at irradiation dose of 1.0 kGy, the decrease in L* and a* values was almost four and three times higher than that observed in samples irradiated at 0.5 kGy and below; while an increase in b* value was almost double. In spite of marginal degradation in color, low dose irradiation (up to 0.5 kGy) significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased the antioxidant activity of the plum peel anthocyanins. https://jfsh.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jfsh/article/view/315 https://jfsh.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jfsh/article/download/315/156