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Evaluation of Epicoccum nigrum for growth, morphology and production of natural colorants in liquid media and on a solid rice medium

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Abstract

Four nonpathogenic and nontoxigenic Epicoccum nigrum strains were evaluated for their growth, morphology and pigment producing ability in three complex and one defined liquid media. Epicoccum nigrum IBT 41028 produced pigments in all the four media tested with a maximum pigment of 3.68 AU at 410 nm in M1 medium (unoptimized) containing 5 g/l yeast autolysate. The color hue of the crude pigment extracts ranged from 74 to 102 exhibiting dark orange to green-yellow color. Pelleted morphology was shown to have a positive influence on the pigment production by E. nigrum strain IBT 41028 in the liquid media, and the use of Bis-tris buffer was found to diminish or reduce the pellet formation. Since Monascus is a well known pigment producer on rice. Pigment producing ability of E. nigrum IBT 41028 was tested on rice and compared to liquid media with Monascus ruber IBT 7904 as control. Though, both genera preferred rice but E. nigrum produced 4.6 folds higher pigment in the liquid unoptimized fermentation medium compared to M. ruber. Solid phase extraction and subsequently HPLC-DAD analysis of the crude pigment extracts showed qualitative as well as quantitative variation in the pigment composition under solid and liquid cultivations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Centre for Advanced Food Studies (LMC)—Graduate School FOOD and CHR Hansen A/S for the financial support of the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Microbial Biotechnology, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Building 221, 2800 Kgs., Lyngby, Denmark

    Sameer A. S. Mapari & Ulf Thrane

  2. Bioprocess Engineering Section, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Building 229, 2800 Kgs., Lyngby, Denmark

    Anne S. Meyer

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  1. Sameer A. S. Mapari
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  2. Anne S. Meyer
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  3. Ulf Thrane
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Correspondence to Sameer A. S. Mapari.

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Mapari, S.A.S., Meyer, A.S. & Thrane, U. Evaluation of Epicoccum nigrum for growth, morphology and production of natural colorants in liquid media and on a solid rice medium. Biotechnol Lett 30, 2183–2190 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-008-9798-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-008-9798-y

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