Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Production and Characterization of Violacein by Locally Isolated Chromobacterium violaceum Grown in Agricultural Wastes

  • Published:
Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The present work highlighted the production of violacein by the locally isolated Chromobacterium violaceum (GenBank accession no. HM132057) in various agricultural waste materials (sugarcane bagasse, solid pineapple waste, molasses, brown sugar), as an alternative to the conventional rich medium. The highest yield for pigment production (0.82 g L−1) was obtained using free cells when grown in 3 g of sugarcane bagasse supplemented with 10% (v/v) of l-tryptophan. A much lower yield (0.15 g L−1) was obtained when the cells were grown either in rich medium (nutrient broth) or immobilized onto sugarcane bagasse. Violacein showed similar chemical properties as other natural pigments based on the UV–Vis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thin-layer chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and mass spectrometry analysis. The pigment is highly soluble in acetone and methanol, insoluble in water or non-polar organic solvents, and showed good stability between pH 5–9, 25–100 °C, in the presence of light metal ions and oxidant such as H2O2. However, violacein would be slowly degraded upon exposure to light. This is the first report on the use of cheap and easily available agricultural wastes as growth medium for violacein-producing C. violaceum.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Cho, Y. J., Park, J. P., Hwang, H. J., Kim, S. W., Choi, J. W., & Yun, J. W. (2002). Production of red pigment by submerged culture of Paecilomyces sinclairii. Letters in Applied Microbiology, 3, 195–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Kamel, M. M., El-Shishtawy, R. M., Yussef, B. M., & Mashaly, H. (2005). Ultrasonic assisted dyeing III: Dyeing of wool with lac as a natural dye. Dyes and Pig., 65, 103–110.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Babitha, S. (2009). Microbial pigments. In P. S. Nigam & A. Pandey (Eds.), Biotechnology for agro-industrial residues (pp. 147–162). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Hendry, G. A. F., & Houghton, J. D. (1997). Natural food colorants. Glasgow: Blackie.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Dufossé, L. (2006). Microbial production of food grade pigments. Food Tech. Biotech., 44(3), 313–321.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Jagannadham, M. V., Rao, V. J., & Shivaji, S. (1991). The major carotenoid pigment of a psychrotrophic Micrococcus roseus strain: Purification, structure, and interaction with synthetic membranes. Journal of Bacteriology, 173(24), 7911–7917.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu, G. Y., & Nizet, V. (2009). Color me bad: Microbial pigments as virulence factors. Trends Microbe., 17(9), 406–413.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Balows, A., Truper, H. G., Dworkin, M., Harder, W., & Schleifer, K. H. (Eds.) (1992). The prokaryotes, 2nd ed. Berlin: Springer.

  9. Sneath, P. H. (1994). Chromobacterium Bergonzini 1881. In: R. E. Gibbons (Ed.), Bergey’s manual of determinative bacteriology, 8th ed. (p. 354). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.

  10. Mendes, A. S., de Carvalho, J. E., Duarte, M. C. T., Durán, N., & Bruns, R. E. (2001). Factorial design and response surface optimization of crude violacein for Chromobacterium violaceum production. Biotechnology Letters, 23, 1963–1969.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Durán, N., & Menck, C. F. M. (2001). Chromobacterium violaceum: A review of pharmacological and industrial perspectives. Critical Reviews in Microbiology, 27, 201–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Pandey, A. (1992). Recent developments in solid-state fermentation. Process Biochemistry, 27, 109–117.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Pandey, A., Soccol, C. R., Nigam, P., Soccol, V. T., Vandenberghe, L. P. S., & Mohan, R. (2000). Review paper: Biotechnological potential of agro-industrial residues. II: Cassava bagasse. Biores Technol., 74, 81–87.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Rettori, D., & DuraÂn, N. (1998). Production, extraction and purification of violacein: An Antibiotic pigment produced by Chromobacterium violaceum. World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, 14, 685–688.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Drew, S. W., & Demain, A. L. (1977). Effect of primary metabolites on secondary metabolism. Annual Review of Microbiology, 31, 343–356.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Sivendra, R., & Lo, H. S. (1975). Identification of Chromobacterium violaceum: Pigmented and nonpigmented strains. Journal of General Microbiology, 90, 21–23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Nigam, J. N., & Kakati, M. C. (2002). Optimization of dilution rate for the production of value added product and simultaneous reduction of organic load from pineapple cannery waste. World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, 18, 303–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Tanaka, K., Hilary, Z. D., & Ishizaki, A. (1999). Investigation of the utility of pineapple juice and pineapple waste material as low-cost substrate for ethanol fermentation by Zymomonas mobilis. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 87(5), 642–646.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Mussatto, S. I., & Teixeira, J. A. (2010). Lignocellulose as raw material in fermentation processes. In: Mendez-Vilas, A. (Ed.), Current research, technology and education topics in applied microbiology and microbial biotechnology (p. 898). Badajoz: Formatex.

  20. Vasconcelos, A. T. R., Almeida, D. F., Hungria, M., Guimarães, C. T., Antônio, R. V., Almeida, F. C., et al. (2003). The complete genome of Chromobacterium violaceum reveals remarkable and exploitable bacterial adaptability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100, 11660–11665.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Creczynski-Pasa, T. B., & Antônio, R. V. (2004). Energetic metabolism of Chromobacterium violaceum. Genetics and Molecular Research, 3(1), 162–166.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. DeMoss, R. D., & Evans, N. R. (1959). Physiological aspects of violacein biosynthesis in nonproliferating cells. Journal of Bacteriology, 78, 583–586.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Mohan, J. (2007). Organic spectroscopy—principles and applications. UK: Alpha Science International.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Yada, S., Wang, Y., Zou, Y., Nagasaki, K., Hosokawa, K., Osaka, I., et al. (2008). Isolation and characterization of two groups of novel marine bacteria producing violacein. Marine Biotech., 10, 128–132.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Lambert, J. B., & Mazzola, E. P. (2004). Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy—an introduction to principles, applications and experimental methods. USA: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Hoshino, T., Kondo, T., Uchiyama, T., & Ogasawara, N. (1987). Biosynthesis of violacein: A novel rearrangement in tryptophan metabolism with 1, 2-shift of the indole ring. Agricultural and Biological Chemistry, 51, 965–968.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Lu, Y., Wang, L., Xue, Y., Zhang, C., Xing, X. H., Lou, K., et al. (2009). Production of violet pigment by a newly isolated psychrotrophic bacterium from a glacier in Xinjiang. China. Biochem. Eng. J., 43, 135–141.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Neshati, A. (2010). Extraction and characterization of purple pigment from Chromobacterium violaceum grown in agricultural waste. Master’s thesis, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

  29. Wang, Y.-J., Pan, M.-H., Cheng, A.-L., Lin, L.-I., Ho, Y.-S., Hsieh, C.-Y., et al. (1997). Stability of curcumin in buffer solutions and characterization of its degradation products. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 15, 1867–1876.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Oetari, S., Sudibyo, M., Commandeur, J. N. M., Samhoedi, R., & Vermeulen, N. P. E. (1996). Effects of curcumin on cytochrome P450 and glutathione S-transferase activities in rat liver. Biochemical Pharmacology, 51, 39–45.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Britton, G. (1983). The biochemistry of natural pigments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Zhang, H., Zhan, J., Su, K., & Zhang, Y. (2006). A kind of potential food additive produced by Streptomyces coelicolor: Characteristics of blue pigment and identification of a novel compound, λ-actinorhodin. Food Chemistry, 95, 186–192.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Herbach, K. M., Stinzing, F. C., & Carle, R. (2006). Betalain stability and degradation—structural and chromatic aspects. Journal of Food Science, 71, R41–R50.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Konzen, M., De Marco, D., Cordova, C. A. S., Vieira, T. O., Antônio, R. V., & Creczynski-Pasa, T. B. (2006). Antioxidant properties of violacein: Possible relation on its biological function. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, 14, 8307–8313.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the contribution from the Ministry of Agriculture, Malaysia for the Technofund grant (TF0310F080), the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia for the National Science Fellowship scholarship, and the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia for the MyPhD scholarship to Nur Zulaikha Yusof and Nordiana Nordin at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia

    Wan Azlina Ahmad, Nur Zulaikha Yusof & Nordiana Nordin

  2. Institute of Bioproduct Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Zainul Akmar Zakaria

  3. National Metrology Laboratory, SIRIM Berhad, Lot PT 4803, Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi, 43900, Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Mohd Fazlin Rezali

Authors
  1. Wan Azlina Ahmad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nur Zulaikha Yusof
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nordiana Nordin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Zainul Akmar Zakaria
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Mohd Fazlin Rezali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wan Azlina Ahmad.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ahmad, W.A., Yusof, N.Z., Nordin, N. et al. Production and Characterization of Violacein by Locally Isolated Chromobacterium violaceum Grown in Agricultural Wastes. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 167, 1220–1234 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-012-9553-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-012-9553-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation