నైరూప్య

Pharmacological Products and Pigments from Monascus Sp by Solid State Fermentation

Satarupa Gogoi

The metabolites produced by the microbes are having many beneficial usage in health care systems, textile and food industries. Recently natural pigments are encouraged above synthetic ones to overcome the hazardous effects of the later on mankind as well as the environment. Traditionally, colorants or pigments were naturally extracted from plants and animal skin. Then the era of synthetic dyes were prevalent for its availability, low cost extraction and effectiveness. But gradually it started to have dangerous results on the environment. Hence, researches on natural pigments from natural sources such as microbes are in vogue now as microbes are easily available and fast growing. Productions of antibiotics and other pharmacological substances were known from the past. Numerous microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, yeast and mold etc. are utilized for the industrial production of various pigments, medicine, enzymes etc. by using fermentation technology. Solid state fermentation and submerged fermentation are followed for the production of the pigments from the microbes. Here the review gives a brief view about the various types of pigments that can be produced, different substrates used as a platform for the microbial growth and the factors such as pH, temperature, solvents, light, nitrogen source etc., affecting the color intensity and production