Isolation, identification and antibacterial study of pigmented bacteria

Abstract

Pigments obtained from natural sources gain worldwide interest in recent year as synthetic pigments have many environmental hazards because chemicals present in them are very toxic and has many disadvantages. Pigments produced by bacteria play an important role in food, pharmaceutical and textile industries. These are isolated from different sources like soil, water, vegetables and fruits. In current study these pigmented bacteria are isolated from the soil of different regions with different geographical and climatic conditions. Main objective was to isolate and identify pigmented bacteria from soil and to find their antibacterial activity.04 pigmented bacterial isolates were obtained from the soil and they were further used for pigment extraction and study. They were characterized by the Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. The extracts were prepared using chloroform as solvent and the maximum absorption of each sample was determined by UV spectrometer. The pigments were further analyzed using paper chromatography. Antibacterial activity of pigments revealed that they had some inhibitory action against pathogens like E. coli, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus sps. Thus the current study can be a useful step for large-scale production of pigments, their purification and application in various industries especially from soil, which has diverse organisms which produce different pigments with antibacterial and antifungal activity.