Monascus pigments have been used as natural food colorants in Asia for centuries. They are not authorized for use in the European Union and the United States mainly due to the risk of coproduction of the mycotoxin citrinin by Monascus spp. In the present study, we screened for novel producers of Monascus-like pigments from ascomycetous filamentous fungi belonging to Penicillium subgenus Biverticillium that are not reported to produce citrinin or any other known mycotoxins. The screening was carried out using the X-hitting algorithm as a tool to quickly screen through chromatographic sample data files of 22 different Penicillium extracts with 12 Monascus pigment extracts as controls. The algorithm searched for the most similar UV-vis spectra of the metabolites (cross hits) present in the pigment extracts to those of the selected reference metabolites viz. monascin, rubropunctatin, rubropunctamine, and citrinin. The cross hits were then manually identified on the basis of their UV-vis and mass spectra. X-hitting was found to be a good tool in the rapid screening of crude pigment extracts. Monascus pigments were discovered in the extracts of two closely related species of Penicillium that were only distantly related to the genus Monascus. Monascorubrin, xanthomonasin A, and threonine derivatives of rubropunctatin were identified in the extract of Penicillium aculeatum IBT 14263, and monascorubrin was identified in the extract of Penicillium pinophilum IBT 13104. None of the tested Penicillium extracts showed the presence of citrinin. Thus, the present study brought out two novel promising sources of yellow, orange, and purple-red Monascus-like food pigments in the species of Penicillia that do not produce citrinin and opened the door to look for several more new promising sources of natural food colorants in the species of Penicillia.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf801817q | DOI Listing |
J Agric Food Chem
January 2025
Institute of Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Schleinitzstraße 20, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.
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January 2025
Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, West China Hospital, Chengdu, China.
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State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China.
Post-harvest losses and rapid fruit ripening at room temperature are major challenges in preserving fruit quality. This study aimed to reduce such losses by applying a red carotenoid pigment, bacterioruberin extracted from an sp. The carotenoid was characterized as bacterioruberin and its derivative tetra anhydrous bacterioruberin (λmax 490 nm), and an / value of 675 and 742 (M+ 1H).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Food Sci Technol
January 2025
Department of Food Engineering, University of Córdoba, 230007 Montería, Colombia.
In recent years, global trends indicate consumer interest in functional foods. Thus, there is a trend to replace the use of artificial colors with natural colors that, in addition to being attractive to consumers, provide benefits to the biological functions of the human organism. The objective of this research was the solvent extraction of a natural dye from the roselle flower, its identification and evaluation of its behavior at different pH and temperatures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Med Chem
January 2025
School of Pharmacy, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, China.
Curcumin is a natural plant pigment that has been widely used in food production, drug development, and textile engineering. Gaining a deep understanding of the biological activities of curcumin and obtaining high-purity curcumin are of vital importance for basic research and applications of curcumin. In this review, we summarize recent advances in curcumin, mainly focusing on the methods of extracting and purifying curcumin from turmeric as well as applications based on biological activity.
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