Pink discolouration in canned okra (Hibiscus esculentus).

Okra is a common vegetable in fndia. It is also canned either alone or as
curri~d vegetable and also used as a base for soups in combination with other
vegetables. When processed in brine, the seeds of okra, which are normally
colourless, turn pink. Similar pink discolouration on processing reported in the
case of banana by Simmonds1 has been attributed to the conversion of the colourless
leucoanthocyanin to the coloured anthocyanin. Earlier work on okra relates
mainly to its composition with reference to vitamin A2, to occurrence of I-glutamic
add3 , to the oil and protein contents of seeds of a variety "Cifre De Veado"4 and
to the nature of the hydrolytic products of the okra mucilage". In the present study,
two varieties of okra, one with red skin and the other with light green skin, as
normally available locally, have been employed to study the development of pink
colour on heat processing.