Current perspective on bacterial pigments: emerging sustainable compounds with coloring and biological properties for the industry – an incisive evaluation

Abstract

International audienceThe current inclination towards exploiting bacterial pigments for various coloring functions, like food, cloth, painting, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, plastics etc. is a well-recognized aspect. Nevertheless, the current bacterial pigment productions are not effective to meet their industrial needs. Current research going on world over on bacterial pigments signify that genetic engineering for strain improvement, optimization of bioprocess modelling and utilizing cheap agro-industrial residues as substrates are key developmental strategies to maximize pigment production from bacteria. Incidentally the superior performance characteristics of the bacteria for producing differing colouring compounds and the environmental acceptability of bacterial pigments are very encouraging factors to promote higher pigment production taking advantage of the current developmental strategies. This paper evaluates the current advances in bacterial pigment production, its recovery and wide-ranging scope of its industrial applications and commercial viability

Fungal and Bacterial Pigments: Secondary Metabolites with Wide Applications

“…Among the various available pigments, the carotenoids alone are estimated to reach $1.4 billion by 2018 (Venil et al, 2014). …”

Current perspective of yellowish-orange pigments from microorganisms- a review

“…While researchers such as Dufoss e et al 2014and Venil et al (2014aVenil et al ( , 2013 have identified the sustainability benefits of microorganism pigments and their advancements in fermentation in general, it is important to focus on particular pigment, yellowishorange pigment and examine its potential benefits and applications. This paper investigates the current challenges, economics, novel strategies and application of yellowish-orange pigment from microorganisms through exploratory reports and studies on this pigment.…”

“…As biotechnological industries are at the fast growth phase, shorter fermentation with high pigment yields is essential for industries. Advancement of microbiology was implemented by identifying bacterial strains with desired traits with the knowledge of biochemistry, chemical engineering and physiology (Venil et al, 2014a). Manipulation and alteration of sequence of genes in the DNA of bacterial strains were attempted to enhance the bacterial metabolism and increase the product yields.…”

“…Pigment production is increased when the cells are exposed to stress conditions which may include elevated temperatures, osmotic pressures, metabolic inhibition and existence of heavy metals and so on. Yield of pigment from fermentation is increased as bacterial growth restrained due to adaption to these stress conditions (Venil et al, 2014a). According to Afshari et al (2015), yellow pigment production and mycelial growth of Penicillium aculeatum ATCC10409 were influenced by the effect of pH, temperature and agitation speed under submerged fermentation.…”

“…Biotechnological process plays a main role in providing high yields of pigments with low cost and less waste disposal (Venil et al, 2014a). Upon cultivating microorganism in large scale, various factors such as bioreactor design, substrates used as growth medium, microorganisms and type of fermentation (batch, fedbatch or continuous) must be taken into consideration to design a sustainable process for yellowish-orange pigment production.…”