Concentration determination of extracellular and intracellular red pigments produced by Monascus sp

Abstract

In this work red pigments production was evaluated (by spectrophotometry) in semi-synthetic medium by rotary shaker cultures, utilizing seven strains of Monascus sp. The strains isolated at LEB/DEQ/EPUSP had a absorbance average of extracellular red pigments higher than the others strains (13.0 and 9.6 U, respectively) and the specific production of extracellular red pigments was from 1.7 until 3.5 times higher than the specific production of intracellular ones.

Enhancement of microbial pigment production from Monascus ruber by sodium octanoate addition

“…However, the culture containing 1.0 mM of sodium octanoate reached a maximum production of red pigments (4.103 AU 510nm ) in just 96 hours of cultivation, showing that supplementation at this concentration was efficient, since the values for P cells and P m for this culture were greater than the values obtained by the control culture, the productivity of red pigments for this concentration being about 29% higher than that of the control culture. Hamano et al (2005) studied the cultivation of different Monascus strains and observed that the growth phase ended after 20 to 25 hours of cultivation and that the production of red pigments was partially associated with growth. The maximum biomass production was between 5.9 and 8.8 g L -1 , with the maximum red pigment production varying between 8.0 AU and 20.4 AU.…”

Assessment of insecticidal activity of red pigment produced by the fungus Beauveria bassiana

“…Among them, the crystal protein toxin produced by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Amin et al 2008a), and the nontoxic red pigment produced by the fungus Monascus spp. (Juslová et al 1996;Hamano et al 2005). The red pigment is produced extracellularly and is totally soluble in water (Fig.…”

Natural colorants from filamentous fungi

“…They concluded that rice water medium is an effective substrate for producing the red colorant without any external nitrogen source and, also, that the ANN analysis provides a dynamic model for successful prediction of optimal operating conditions. Hamano et al (2005) showed that the specific production of extracellular red colorant by different strains of Monascus sp. is 1.7-3.5 higher than the specific production of intracellular red colorant in semi-synthetic medium on a rotary shaker.…”