Bacterial Pigments: Sustainable Compounds With Market Potential for Pharma and Food Industry

Chidambaram Kulandaisamy Venil,Ponnuswamy Renuka Devi,Laurent Dufossé

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2020.00100

Chidambaram Kulandaisamy Venil, Ponnuswamy Renuka Devi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00100

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Abstract

The continued universal application of synthetic colorants for decades have caused environmental pollutions and human health vulnerabilities. So, it was indispensable to discover novel natural colorants such as microbial colorants which were safer and better than synthetic colorants. The potential of bacterial pigments for mass production of diversified coloring properties was first prospective and is now getting the notable importance and attention of both the researchers and industries. Literature establishes that the natural colorants produced from microbes were applied in food and pharma products successfully. Apart from serving as food colorants, bacterial pigments have several pharmacological activities like anti-microbial, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic properties with large economic potential. And, there is vast scope for easy and cheap production of natural colorants in all seasons from bacterial sources, compared to plant sources. Tactics in strain improvement, fermentation conditions, metabolic engineering, and easy extraction techniques are needed to produce high end products. This review highlights the significance of bacterial colorants and summarizes its application in food and pharma industries. Further, the major challenge of lower stability of bacterial pigments and the solution to address it is also appraised.

Highlights

Industries of late, have resorted to use many important microbial metabolites like antibacterials, antifungals, vitamins, enzymes, pigments, etc., for varied applications as being alternative ones to synthetic products
The strain improvement via genetic engineering would address these issues and process scaling will be more predictable in developing novel bacteria as production forum for pigments
Natural colorants are being extracted from microorganisms and are used for various applications

Summary

Introduction

Industries of late, have resorted to use many important microbial metabolites like antibacterials, antifungals, vitamins, enzymes, pigments, etc., for varied applications as being alternative ones to synthetic products. Cloning the pigment biosynthesis gene into microbial vectors like E. coli, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas putida, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Pichia pastoris is the cost-effective and economic way for industrial production processes (Sen et al, 2019). The genetic engineering is encouraged by the possible industrial uses wherever value-added strategies for developing strains are adopted to enhance the pigment production (Saini et al, 2020).

Results

Conclusion