Soil salinization, an overwhelming problem exacerbated by climate change and anthropogenic activities, poses a significant threat to global food security by impairing plant growth, development, and crop productivity. Salinity stress induces osmotic, ionic, and oxidative stresses, disrupting physiological and biochemical processes in plants. Anthocyanins, a class of flavonoids, have emerged as key players in mitigating salt stress through their antioxidant properties, ROS scavenging, and regulation of stress-responsive pathways. During salt stress, ROS act as damaging agents and signaling molecules, upregulating anthocyanin-related genes to mitigate oxidative stress and maintain cellular homeostasis. Anthocyanins mitigate salt stress by regulating osmotic balance, ion homeostasis, and antioxidant defenses. Their biosynthesis is regulated by a network of structural and regulatory genes, including MYB, bHLH, and WD40 transcription factors, influenced by epigenetic modifications and hormonal signaling pathways such as ABA, JA, and SA. Advances in genetic engineering, including CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing, have enabled the development of anthocyanin-rich transgenic plants with enhanced salt tolerance. For instance, transgenic plants overexpressing anthocyanin biosynthesis genes like DFR and ANS have demonstrated enhanced salt tolerance in crops such as tomatoes and rice. However, challenges such as variability in anthocyanin accumulation and stability under environmental stressors remain. This review highlights the translational potential of anthocyanins in crop improvement, emphasizing the need for integrated multi-omics approaches and field trials to validate their efficacy. By elucidating the molecular mechanisms of salt stress and anthocyanin-mediated stress alleviation, this work provides a foundation for developing resilient crops to address the growing challenges of soil salinization.

The objective of this study was to produce new active and intelligent high performance colorimetric films based on cellulose acetate (CA), and to evaluate the synergistic effect of thymol (THY) and anthocyanin (ANT). The colour films showed significant reactivity to pH change, and the films became thicker in the presence of glycerol (0.200 +/- 0.05). FTIR and SEM images showed a homogeneous distribution and new interactions created between THY, ANT and CA, which modified the thermal properties. This behaviour was also confirmed by XRD analysis, which showed a reduction in film crystallinity with increasing anthocyanin concentration. In addition, the incorporation of ANT improved the mechanical properties by reducing the tensile strength (0.075 +/- 0.021 MPa), the biodegradability of the films in the soil after 60 days and also the water vapor transmission rate (14.81 g mm-2 h-1). The films showed synergistic antibacterial activity and the application trials showed colour changes that were highly visible to the naked eye, with the deterioration of the fish, suggesting a promising application for these films as an indicator of fish freshness.

Intelligent packaging film has received more and more attention because it can help consumers obtain more intuitive information about the packaging, provide better preservation and advanced convenience. In this study, black rice anthocyanin (BRA) was added into composite film formed by starch (S) and esterified starch (ES). As the BRA content increased, the thickness and the total color difference of the S/ES-BRA film increased. The opacity of S/ES-BRA film decreased relative to that of the film without BRA, but increased with the increase of anthocyanin. Compared with S/ES film, the elongation at break of S/ES-BRA0.5 film increased from 33.1 % to 45.4 %, and the tensile strength decreased from 7.3 to 5.8 MPa. S/ES-BRA film had response to different pH values and underwent color changes in different buffer solutions. Intelligent color changing packaging film will used to monitor food quality, water quality and soil properties.

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is the most consumed leafy vegetable in Brazil. It is cultivated using at least four distinct systems, the most common of which are conventional and hydroponic systems. These systems provide different cultivation conditions for plants, causing physiological changes that are important for commercial production, such as nutrient uptake and biomass accumulation. However, only a few studies have compared the physiological aspects of these two cultivation systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physiological behavior of 'Rubinela' lettuce plants grown in hydroponic and conventional pot systems, by comparing dry mass (DM) and fresh mass (FM) production, number of leaves (NF), stomatal density, and contents of chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanin, sugars, and starch. Plants cultivated in hydroponic systems presented significant differences in chlorophyll content, producing more biomass than plants cultivated in conventional pot systems, probably because of better nutritional conditions, primarily with respect to macronutrients, provided by the nutrient solution of the hydroponic system. The lower water availability encountered by plants cultivated in conventional pot systems influenced the increased sugar and starch concentrations, as well as the anthocyanin content, which may be a strategy to mitigate the possible damage caused by hydric stress conditions.