Submerged culture conditions for the production of alternative natural colorants by a new isolated Penicillium purpurogenum DPUA 1275.

This work aims at investigating the production of yellow, orange, and red natural colorants in a submerged culture of Penicillium purpurogenum DPUA 1275. For this purpose, different experimental conditions evaluating the effect of incubation time, type and size of inoculum, and different carbon and nitrogen sources were performed. Furthermore, the growth kinetics were obtained in the conditions of 10(8) spores/ml and 5 mycelia agar discs during 360 h. These experiments showed that 5 mycelia agar discs and 336 h promoted the highest yellow (3.08 UA400nm), orange (1.44 UA470nm), and red (2.27 UA490nm) colorants production. Moreover, sucrose and yeast extract were the most suitable carbon and nitrogen sources for natural colorants production. Thus, the present study shows a new source of natural colorants, which can be used as an alternative to others available in the market after toxicological studies.