COLUMBUS, Ohio — Like any other young child growing up under the watchful eye of strict parents, Monica Giusti was told to eat her vegetables.

“I always loved fruits, but I was not a big fan of veggies when I was younger,” said Giusti, now an assistant professor at The Ohio State University’s Department of Food Science and Technology. “Didn’t understand why I had to eat them back then.”

Giusti may still despise the taste of broccoli or red peppers, but her hard study and groundbreaking work on beneficial compounds of fruits (and yes, vegetables) has earned her the honor of being named Outstanding Woman in Technology by TechColumbus, during a ceremony earlier this year in Columbus.

The awards recognize forward-thinking individuals, companies and technology teams in the central Ohio region for their achievements and contributions in tech, leadership and innovation.

Giusti studies anthocyanins, the natural compounds that give most fruits and vegetables their orange, red, blue and purple colors. These pigments are powerful antioxidants believed to play an important role in the health-enhancing properties of produce, including the prevention of cancer and other diseases.

“When it came time to choose a major in college, I chose food engineering and food science because I love the science and how it relates to daily life,” Giusti said. “There I realized that ‘eat your vegetables’ is much more than an old saying, that there is strong scientific evidence that points to fruits and vegetables as rich sources of phytochemicals that help the body fight chronic diseases.”

Epidemiological studies show that people who consume diets rich in fruits and vegetables have lower chances of developing chronic diseases, and the World Health Organization, the USDA and many scientists around the world recommend we eat a diet rich in these.

“This sparked my interest on trying to understand what compounds in fruits and vegetables are responsible for those health benefits,” Giusti said. “Among those compounds, our focus has been the study of phenolic compounds, known for their antioxidant properties.”

She was not raised on a farm, but the city. She grew up in Peru, a country with diverse vegetation and a climate that lends itself to produce a large variety of fruits and vegetables.

“When I started to study food engineering, I want to an agricultural university and it was there that I became more familiar with this exciting field,” Giusti said. “As part of our training, we learned about important commodities, post-harvest physiology and processing.

“Later on, my focus switched to the study of the chemical composition as it related to the quality of the food and its potential for impacting health.”

That led to Giusti’s study of anthocyanins, which are difficult and expensive to isolate into pure forms. Her laboratory has led the development of a novel isolation technique to achieve highly purified anthocyanin mixtures at low costs and high efficiency. A company, AnthoScyantific, has been created to apply this technology for the production of large volumes of nature’s purest and most colorful antioxidants.

“We just want to recommend to people that they eat a variety of colors of fruits and vegetables, and the more intense and more vivid the colors, they’re more likely to contain higher amounts of the beneficial compounds,” Giusti said. “Anthocyanins are abundant in berries, grapes, red apples, red cabbage, radish, plum, eggplant, red potatoes and many more.”

Giusti performs some of her study in the fields that contain these fruits and vegetables. But most of her work is in the lab, where she examines the different components of the plant material and extract.

In the lab pigments are analyzed using different laboratory methods such as spectrophometry and chromatography. These tell her if pigments could be used in the food industry as natural dyes, and whether they are more or less stable in the gastrointestinal tract.

“Some of our research can help growers choose a variety of a particular crop if their purpose is color production,” Giusti said. “The concentration of pigments in the plant is also related to stress conditions, as well as protection mechanisms against a number of environmental stressors.

“The ultimate goal is to provide information to growers, consumers and food processors to choose the best plant materials or varieties that can serve as a source of nature’s colors and enhance health.”

In winning the award, Giusti was selected by a panel of independent judges from a total of 12 finalists, who included Fortune 500 vice presidents, consulting firm owners and partners and fellow university researchers.

“Winning this award is, of course a great honor and recognition to the impact that our research can have in society,” said Giusti, who joined OSU in 2004. “But most of all, this award is a tremendous motivation to continue working even harder in this fascinating field.”