Colours are Indicators of Phytochemical Components and Medicinal Properties of Plants: A Review of Natural Spectroscopy

Background: It is highly laborious to determine biological activities of plants using colours, despite the use of spectroscopic methods. Therefore the review is aimed at using colours to determine the phytochemical and medicinal properties of plants.

Methods: Literature was searched for medicinal plant parts whose colours solely depend on their phytochemical pigments. Primary colours (green, red and blue) were cross-matched to give yellow, orange, brown, cyan, magenta and purple.

Results: Each of the reflected colour is suggestive of phytochemical pigment(s) with specific medicinal properties. Black coloured plants and plant parts may be toxic and so can be used to treat cancer and cancer-related diseases. White phytochemical pigments may be used to treat diabetes, hypertension, asthma and some inflammatory diseases. Because previous studies have shown that the colours have the medicinal values.

Conclusion: The combination of primary colours (red, green and blue) can form over 1000 colours with different medicinal values that may be found in both lower and higher plants.