Abstract

Fungal pigments are extremely important for biotechnological exploitation. The present study was conducted to detect and analyze the pigments produced by selected Aspergillus and Penicillium isolates. The pigment producing fungi were isolated from soil and air. Fungi producing yellow and orange red pigments were cultured on Potato dextrose broth and Czapek-Dox broth separately. Cellular pigments were extracted from mycelial mass and secretory pigments were extracted from culture filtrates using chloroform and ethyl acetate separately. Visible pigments were observed mostly in mycelial mass extracted in ethyl acetate. UV-Visible spectroscopic analysis provided detection of yellow pigment (380 nm) in Aspergillus isolate and orange red pigment (463 nm) in Penicillium sp. The results also indicated that production of pigments in these fungi is dependent on the availability of nutrients in the medium. Extractability of the pigments was dependent on the solvent. These fungi may be exploited biotechnologically by maintaining suitable culture conditions for industrial production of pigments.

Key words: Aspergillus, Penicillium, Pigments, Spectrophotometry