Anthocyanins - dietary natural products with a variety of bioactivities for the promotion of human and animal health

Anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments contained in numerous food plants. This study provides an overall quantitative literature analysis on anthocyanins. Bibliometric data were collected through the search string TOPIC = anthocyan*, which yielded 44,121 publications indexed within the Web of Science Core Collection. Term maps were generated using VOSviewer software to visualize frequently mentioned terms alongside their citation data. The literature has been growing fast since the 2000s and predominantly consists of original articles, with a ratio of 13.8:1 compared to reviews. The most productive author was Professor Victor de Freitas from the University of Porto, whereas the most productive countries were China and the United States. Many publications were published in food science & technology and plant sciences journals. Frequently mentioned chemicals/chemical classes included anthocyanin, flavonoid, cyanidin, phenolic compound, and polyphenol. Recurring food items of the anthocyanin papers were grapes, many berries, and specific varieties of rice, maize, potato, and tomato.