Abstract:The study focused on black rice anthocyanins, investigated the effects of temperature and metal ions (Na+, Ca2+) on the thermal stability, antioxidant capacity, and color of anthocyanins by simulating typical thermal processing environments (heating temperature 60-100 ℃, heating time 0-40 min, ion concentration 0-40 mmol/L) using methods such as color difference meter, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and fluorescence spectrophotometer. The results indicated that under the influence of temperature and metal ions, the stability of anthocyanins decreased. When anthocyanin solutions were treated at 100 ℃ for 40 min with Na+ and Ca2+ concentrations reaching 40 mmol/L, the retention of anthocyanins dropped to approximately 75%. As the temperature and metal ion concentration increase, the L and b values of the anthocyanin solution increased, while the a value decreased, indicating a reduction in the substituents or chromophore groups of anthocyanins, with a blue shift in the UV characteristic peak at 530 nm, although the UV characteristic absorption peak of anthocyanins remained at a wave length of 280 nm. Prolonged heat treatment (over 30 min) significantly reduced the antioxidant activity of anthocyanins. The degradation of anthocyanins followed first-order reaction kinetics, with an activation energy Ea of approximately 12.30 kJ/mol. The effects of temperature and metal ions accelerated the degradation rate of anthocyanins, with a retention rate of about 79.8% after heating at 100 ℃ for 30 min. Molecular dynamics simulation results confirmed the impact of metal ions, particularly Ca2+, on the stability of anthocyanins. Correlation analysis results indicated a highly significant negative correlation between Na+ and the reducing capacity of the anthocyanin solution system, while Ca2+ showed a significant negative correlation with the hydroxyl radical scavenging rate of the anthocyanin solution system.