International journal of Horticulture, Agriculture and Food science(IJHAF) Vol -1, Issue -2, July -Aug, 2017 [627179]

International journal of Horticulture, Agriculture and Food science(IJHAF) [Vol -1, Issue -2, July -Aug, 2017]
AI Publications ISSN: 2456 -8635
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Current trends and emerging technologies in
biopigment production processes: Industrial
food and health applications
Dimou Charalampia1, Koutelidakis Ε. Antonios1, Nasopoulou Constantina1, Karantonis
C. Haralab os1*

1Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of the Aegean , Greece
Email of principal author : [anonimizat]
1*Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of the Aegean, Greece
Email of correspondent :[anonimizat]

Abstract—Recently, driven by the need of finding eco-
friendlier and less hazardous pigments than synthetic
colorants there is an increasing trend towards their
replacement with bio pigments. Various types of these
biopolymers (such as astaxanthin, canthaxanthin,
zeaxanthin, ankaflavin, torularhodin and so on ) are
produ ced through the development of proper and efficient
bioprocesses. In this review current biocolorants
production processes are highlighted. Also, emphasis is
given in exploring potential strategies for optimizing
biopigments production processes as well as decreasing
their total production cost s. Therefore, investigation of
potential value added biopigment production using
various types of agroindustrial by -product streams as
well as presentation of efficient extraction, recovery and
identification processe s and technologies (employing
emerging technologies such as supercritical carbon
dioxide (SC -CO2) ) are carried out. Finally, potential
applications of microbial pigments in industrial food and
health sector are presented. Biopigments could lead to
the prod uction of nutrient supplements and functional
food, with improved marketability, displaying various
potential health benefits. Use of microbial pigments in
food processing and pharmaceutical sector, is an area of
promise with large economic potential for several
industrial applications .
Keywords —biopigments , downstream processes,
emerging technologies, functional food, industrial
applications

I. INTRODUCTION
Synthetic colorants have been traditionally used in food,
cloth, cosmetics, painting, plastics and pharmaceuticals
(Lu et al., 2009) . The most serious concerns, dealing with
synthetic dyes are: environmental toxicity, potential
adverse allergenic and intolerance reactions, non –
sustainable production processes strongly correlated with their dependence of non -renewable resources; coal tar and
petroleum (Amchova, Kotolova, & Ruda -Kucerova,
2015) . Currently, research has been focalised in the
production of natural originated dyes through
bioprocessing design and development, aiming to
overturn problems associated with chemical traditional
color synthesis. Production of natural colours is of high
significance not only for humans, safeguarding their
health but also environment and society, promoting
sustainable development principles.
Biocolorant is considered any chemical substance
obtained either from plants, animals or minerals that is
capable of coloring food, drugs, cosmetics or any part of
the human body. Natural colors might be extracted from
renewable resources of plant origin like seeds, fruits,
vegetables and leaves as well as produced via the
development of efficient bioprocesses using biocatalysts
(like bacteria, yeasts, algae, fungi) as integral par t of the
whole production process (Heer & Sharma, 2017;
Rymbai, Sharma, & Srivastav, 2011) . Although a wide
range of natural pigments are available, microbial
pigments have started to mind the gap, regarding large
scale production, due to their: 1) cheaper production 2)
easier extractio n 3) higher production yields (through
proper novel strain improvement) 4) no lack of raw
materials owning to climate and seasonal variations and
5) biodegradability.
In that point, it has to be noted that carotenoids
(subfamily of isoprenoids also called “terpenoids”)
production have witnessed remarkable progress, in
response to the great market demands, mainly due to their
antioxidant and Vitamin A activity, extensively applied in
nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, poultry, food and
cosmetics. Thinking that the current commercial market
value of carotenoids has been estimated $1.5 billion in
2014, with a prospective to grow to $1.8 billion in 2019,
with an annual compound growth rate of 2.3% and the

International journal of Horticulture, Agriculture and Food science(IJHAF) [Vol -1, Issue -2, July -Aug, 2017]
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fact thatastaxanthin, β -carotene, and lutein together share
nearly 60% of total market value (Mata -Gomez,
Montanez, Mendez -Zavala, & Aguilar, 2014) , is obvious
that the production of new generation non -chemically
synthesized microbial pigments is of uncontestable
interest. Scientific rese arch has divulged that biopigments
(Nigam & Luke, 2016) are better alternatives compared to
natural colorants of plant and animal origin, not to
mention their che mically synthesized counterparts
(Mapari et al., 2005) . A large spectrum of stable pigments
such as zeaxanthin, prodigiosin, astaxanthin, lycopene, β-
carotene, pyocyanine blue, can be produced through
bioprocessing technology, offering higher biopigment
production yields and lower generation of non -desired
residues compared to the case of chemically extracted
dyes from plants and animal (Heer & Sharma, 2017) .
Food industry offers a great potential in that area. Each
year huge volumes of different types of by -product and
waste streams are generated through agro -industrial
production processes. Management of these either solid or
liquid streams is of high importance for producers,
consumers and environment. Production of value added
products of high technological, nutritional and
economical value suc h as bio -colorants might address
issues related both to their collection, disposal and
treatment. Implementation of bioprocessing technology
principles, exploiting low cost alternative carbohydrate
sources as feedstocks for metabolite production is
unconte stable a very challenging prospective. In that
point, it has to be highlighted that natural colors apart
from their usage as color and flavor modifiers and
enhancers in food matrices could be used as nutrients
such as vitamin supplements or as functional i ngredients
in processed food, displaying several promoting health
properties. More specifically, biopigments have several
functions as antioxidants, anti -inflammatory,
antineoplastic, radiation -protective, vasotonic,
vasoprotective and chemo as well as hep atoprotective
agents (Rymbai et al., 2011) .
This review paper will lead us to in vestigate: 1) the
current trends and strategies regarding production of
biocolors, 2) the potential valorization of agroindustrial
residues for the production of natural pigments 3) identify
emerging environmentally friendly processes used for
biopigment extraction 4) explore the current and future
applications of biopigments in industrial food and
pharmaceutical sector 5) highlight beneficial health
related effects of bioactive natural pigments.

II. NATURAL PIGMENTS PRODUCTION
BIOPROCESSES
Designing a bioprocess for colorant production is a very
complicated procedure, since many parameters should be considered. Among these the most significant are: 1) the
bioreactor design including the configuration, 2) the type
of the bioreactor, 3) the ra w materials, 4) the
microorganism, 5) the type of fermentation, 6) the
extraction strategy used for the recovery and 7) the
desired actual purity of the biopolymer.
Nowadays, an array of microbial pigments such as
carotenoids, melanins, violacein or indig o and others, can
be produced via bioprocessing technology, using selected
species of microorganisms (bacteria, yeast, fungi and
algae) (Heer & Sharma, 2017) . For instance, Blakeslea
trispora , Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous , Penicillium
oxalicum and Ashbya gossypii are capable of efficient
producti on of β -carotene, astaxanthin, Arpink Red and
riboflavin, respectively (Heer & Sharma, 2017) .
Carotenoid production by fungi has been reported by
several authors. Blakeslea trispora and Phycomyces
blakesleeanus have been evaluated for their potential
carotenoid production not only in laboratory an d pilot but
also industrial scale (Almeida & Cerdá -Olmedo, 2008) .
Maximum caretogenic production regarding Phycomyces
blakesleeanus is achieved unde r the development of
bioprocesses without agitation (Cerda -Olmedo, 2001) .
Blakeslea trispora species are cultivated in large scale
fermenters using as fermentation feedstock food grade
materials like glucose, corn steep liquor and cheese whey.
At the end of the production process, biomass is isolated
and transformed into a suitable form for extracting b –
carotene using ethyl acetate as solvent. The final product
is either b -carotene of high purity or it is formulated as a
30% micronized suspension in v egetable oil (Dufosse,
2006) . It has been stated that in that case the pigment
produced comply with the specification E 160 aii listed i n
the directive 95/45/EC. European Food Safety Authority
claimed that β -carotene, which now has been
commercialized, produced by Blakeslea trispora is
equivalent to the chemically synthesized alternative,
justifying the reasons that make food biocolorants
acceptable for use as coloring agent in foodstuffs (EFSA
Panel on Food Addi tives and Nutrient Sources added to
Food (ANS), 2012) . Since 2000, DSM produces β –
carotene from B. trispora in Europe (Mantzouridou,
Naziri, & Tsimidou, 2008) . Besides β-carotene also
filamentus fungi are capable of generating and other
carotenoids like lycopene, γ -carotene, and phytoene as
well as ubiquinone, ergosterol and organic acids (Ribeiro,
Barreto, & Coelho, 2011) . Monascus moulds ( M. pilosus ,
M. purpureus , and M. ruber ) are very well known,
owning to their ability to produce secondary metabolites
of polyketides structures. The final pigment coloration is
highly depended on the employed cultivation conditions
and strategy followed finding several applications in food
processing (Hsu, Hsu, Liang, Kuo, & Pan, 2011) .

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Traditionally, monascus pigments are produced via solid
state fermentation (SSF) (Srianta, Zubaidah, Estias ih,
Yamada, & Harijono, 2016) . However, solid state
fermentation is not suitable for large -scale production due
to several upcoming bioprocessing problems such as low
productivity of crude pigments, high labor cost, and
several control problems. For tha t reason, it seems that
submerged fermentation, is more promising for
overcoming problems (such as space, scale -up and
process control of solid culture) as well as act beneficial for the production of several pigments and decrease total
production costs by minimizing labor costs involved in
SSF(Vendruscolo, Tosin, Giachi ni, Schmidell, & Ninow,
2014) . Several microbial pigments such as melanin,
monascin, ankaflavin, rubropunctatin, monascorubrin,
rubropunctamine, monascorubramine, carotenoids,
prodigiosin are produced by various selected microbial
strains (Table -1), und er different and very specified
conditions and strategies.

Table -1: Biocolors derived from microorganisms
Biopigment Microorganism Reference
Melanin Streptomyces kathirae SC-1 (Guo et al., 2014)
Red pigments Monascus ruber CCT 3802 (da Costa & Ve ndruscolo, 2017)
Astaxanthin, β -carotene,
canthaxanthin, neoxanthin,
violaxanthin and zeaxanthin Nannochloropsis gaditana (Millao & Uquiche, 2 016)
Torularhodin, torulene, β -carotene and
γ-carotene Sporobolomyces ruberrimus H110 (Cardoso et al., 2016)
1-OH-4-keto-carotene and 1 -OH-
carotene Gordonia amicalis HS-1 (Sowani, Mohite, Damale, Kulkarni,
& Zinjarde, 2016)
β-Carotene, astaxanthin, zeaxanthin
echinenone, anthaxanthin,
phoenicoxanthin, β -cryptoxanthin,
asteroidenone, adonixanthiy Paracoccus bacterial strain A -581-1 (Hirasawa & Tsubokura, 2014)
β-Carotene, astaxanthin and lutein Scenedesmus sp. (Pribyl, Cepak, Kastanek, &
Zachleder, 2015)
β-Carote ne Rhodosporidium toruloides NCYC 92 (Dias, Sousa, Caldeira, Reis, & Lopes
da Silva, 2015)
Υellow pigments (monascin and
ankaflavin), orange pigments
(rubropunctatin and monascorubrin)
and red pigm ents (rubropunctamine
and monascorubramine) pigments Monascus anka GIM 3.592 (Shi et al., 2015)
Monascous pigments
Monascus purpureus AS3.531 (Zhang, Li, Dai, Zhang, & Yuan,
2013)
Prodigiosin Serratia marcescens, Vibrio
psychoerythrus, Streptoverticillium
rubrireticuli and other eubacteria (Khanafari, Assadi, & Fakhr, 2006)
Violacein and deoxyviolacein mixture Escherichia coli (Fang et al., 2015)

III. BY-PRODUCTS OF AGROINDUSTRIAL
ORIGIN AS RAW MATERIAL FOR
BIOCOLORANT PRODUCTION
In recent years, byproducts of agroindustrial origin have
been proposed as alternative feedstocks for biocolors
production, with the view of reducing total production
costs, minimizing env ironmental pollution related
problems and addressing disposal issues (Dimou &
Koutelidakis, 2017) . Exploitation of costless by -product
streams as nutrients for the production of value added products, biopigments, is of high interest , not only for
consumers seeking consumption of healthier natural
products but also for researchers trying to optimize all
parameters affecting the whole bioprocess system.
Besides, there is a current trend in food and
pharmaceutical industrial sector, tar geting production of
valuable products with diversified market outputs using
costless agroindustrial residues as fermentation feedstocks
(Dimou & Koutelidakis, 2016a, 2016b) . Several low co st
by-product streams and residues of agroindustrial origin

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have shown their potential in yielding a wide array of
biocolors, using different microorganisms. Table -2
presents various low -valued residues of agroindustrial
origin that have been used for the production of
biopigments.
Carotenoids production using deproteinized hydrolyzed
whey (Varzakakou & Roukas, 2009) , β-carotene by citrus
products (Tinoi, Rakariyatham, & Deming, 2006) , rice bran, molasses, sugarcane bagasse (Abdelhafez,
Husseiny, Abdel -Aziz Ali, & Sanad, 2016) , cabbage,
watermelon husk and peach peels (Papaioannou &
Liakopoulou -Kyriakides, 2012) and so on, are some
interesting studies. Pigments produced by different
microorganisms, using agroindustrial by -product streams
or residues as nutrient sources of bioconversions are
shown in Table -2.

Table -2: Pigment production usin g different microorganisms and costless by -product and residues streams
Biopigment Microorganism Substrate Reference
b-carotene Serratia marcescens Rice bran, molasses,
sugarcane bagasse (Abdelhafez et al., 2016)
Carotenoids Blakeslea trispora ATCC 14271, mating
type (+), & Blakeslea trispora ATCC
14272, mating type ( –) Cabbage, watermelon
husk and peach peels (Papaioannou &
Liakopoulou -Kyriakides,
2012)
b-carote ne Rhodotorula glutinis Whey (Marova et al., 2012)
Carotenoids Rhodotorula glutinis Chicken feathers (Taskin & Kurbanoglu,
2011)
Astaxanthin Xanthophyllomyces
Dendrorhous Mustard waste (Tinoi et al., 2006)
Monascorubramine Monascus purpureus Rice bran (Babitha, 2009)
Monascorubramine Monascus purpureus Sesame oil cake (Srianta et al., 2016)
Prodigiosin Serratia marcescens MN5 Crude glycerol from
biodizel production (Elkenawy, Yassin,
Elhifnawy, & Amin, 2017)

Production of high value added products like biopigments, using costless by -product streams and residues is a field of great
interest. More research should be carried out in the field of bioprocess produced by biopigments using costless raw materials.

IV. BIOPIGMENTS APPLICATIONS IN FOOD
PROCESSING AND THEIR BENEFICIAL
ROLE IN HEALTH
Up to date the number of biopigment applications in food
and pharmaceutical industry are more and more expanded
due to the ever-growing consumer acceptance of
bioprocessing derived food grade pigments, willing to pay
a premium for “all natural based ingredients”.
Biocolorants may have several applications in food and
pharmaceutical sector, as colorants, flavor enhancing
agents, preservat ives, vitamin or nutritional supplements
possessing several beneficial health benefits.
4.1 Biopigments as organoleptic enhancers in food
production
Several biopigments have been used as food additives for
the formation of dairy, fish, meat, juice and other fo od
products, either modifying or enhancing their color and
flavor or even sometimes display preservative action.
Monascus species have been identified as potent
producers of nontoxic pigments that could be used not
only as food colorants and flavor modifi ers but also as
food preservatives. Monascus ruber has been applied for
the preparation of flavoured milk by utilizing rice carbohydrate as fermentation feedstock, producing
pigment as a secondary metabolite. Solid state
fermentation technology using rice broken as
fermentation media has led to the production of red,
yellow and orange added value pigments (Dufosse, 2006;
Vidyalakshmi, Paranthaman, Murugesh, &
Singaravadivel, 2009) . RMR (also known as Hongqu
Hon-Chired koji or anka in Japan and Rotschimmelreis in
Europe) meaning the fermented product of steamed rice
inoculated with certain Monascus strains has been used as
flavoring and coloring agent in a var iety of foods (bean
curd, preserved dry fish, pork stew, roast duck, roast pork,
sausages and so on) (Lin, Wang, Lee, & Su, 2008;
Mamucod & Dizon, 2014; Rojsuntornkitti, Jittrepotch,
Kongbangkerd, & Kraboun, 2010) . RMR due to its
bacteriostatic effects, function as a partial substitute for
nitrate/nitrite salts in meat a nd poultry products
(including ham and frankfurters) preservation (Bakosova,
Mate, Laciakova, & Pipova, 2001a) .
Extracted carotenoids from Rodotorulaglutinis DFR -PDY
has been applied as food coloring additive in p uffed
products like popcorns, biscuit, ice -creams and fish
products (Kot, Błażejak, Kurcz, Gientka, & Kieliszek,

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2016) . Astaxanthin and other biosynthesized carotenoids
have found several applicati ons in fish products leading to
the production of perfectly skin colored aquatic animals
but also increased consumer acceptability. Recently,
astaxanthin produced by Phafia rhodozyma and
Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous bioconversions have
been commercialized . Also, biocarotenoids produced via
cyanobacteria and microalgae (such as Porphyridium ,
Isochrysis , Gracillaria , Palmaria , Arthrospira ,
Haematococcus pluvialis bioconversions) have been used
as color elicitors in cichlid fish, rainbow trout, fish larvae,
bivalve mollusks and several gastropods salmon, trout,
red sea bream, shrimp, lobster, and fish eggs. Unfortunately, these biopolymers are not yet employed in
large scale applications due to their high production costs
(Muckherjee, Camellia, Khatoon, & Ruma, 2015; Rao et
al., 2010) .
Recently, it has been stated that fungus Penicillium
oxalicum red pigments (Arpink red) could be used for
improving organoleptic characteristics of different food
commodities such as b aby foods, breakfast cereals,
pastas, processed cheese, sauces, fruit drinks, and some
energy drinks (Neeraj, Neera, & Sayan, 2011) . Table 3
presents specific biopigments their applications in food
products and their function, either as colour or flavor
elicito rs.

Table -3: Application of pigments as food quality enhancing agents
Biopigment Function Application Reference
Monascus sppigments
such as ankaflavine and
monascine (yellow pigments),
rubropunctatine and
monascorubrine (orange
pigments) and rubropunctamine
and monascorubramine (purple
pigments) Improve
organoleptic
characteristics Bean curd, preserved dry fish,
pork stew, roast duck, roast
pork, sausages, fish, “Tofu –
cheese”, coluring ketchups, rice,
wine, brandy and sweets (Bakosova, Mate, Laciakova, &
Pipova, 2001b; Lin et al., 2008;
Mamucod & Dizon, 2014;
Rojsuntornkitti et al., 2010;
Vidyalakshmi et al., 2009)
Carotenoids
(such as α-carotene, β- carotene,
lutein, lutein 5 – 6 epoxide,
antheraxanthin, zeaxanthin,
violaxanthin, neoxanthin,
lycopene, canthaxanthin,
astaxanthin)

Skin
coloration Cichlid fish, rainbow trout, fish
larvae, bivalve mollusks and
several gastropods salmon,
trout, red sea bream, shrimp,
lobster, and fish eggs

(Muckherjee et al., 2015)
Astaxanthin Muscle and
skin
pigmentation
effects Fish originated – by based
products (Parmar & Gupta Phutela,
2015)

Penicillium oxalicum red
pigments
(Arpink red)
Improve
appearance –
color Baby foods, breakfast cereals,
pastas, sauces, processed
cheese, fruit drinks, and some
energy drinks
(Neeraj et al., 2011)

4.2 Biopigments as nutrient supplements or functional
ingredients
Bioprocess produced by carotenoids, riboflavin and β –
xanthophylles hold a great potential to be used either as
nutrient supplements or as functional ingredients for the
production of foods of high nutritional value displaying
several potential health promo ting effects.
It is well known that any carotenoid of cyclic structure,
possessing a β -ring has a provitamin A activity.
Consequently, such microbial produced by pigments
could be used as vitamin supplements or for the
formulation of functional foods, ser ving human health
both preventatively regarding the development of hypovitaminosis A as well as therapeutically, regarding
its treatment. Hypovitaminosis A is still one of the most
significant malnutrition derived problems in
underdeveloped and developing countries. Night
blindness, xerophthalmia, xerosis of the cornea, corneal
ulceration, “keratomalacia” and loss of the eyes or
blindness are the most significant clinical manifestations
of hypovitaminosis A (Sommer, 2008) .So, biocarotenoids
hold a great potential to be used as f ortifying vitamin
“carrier” for the production of nutrient supplements and
functional food, preventing and in some cases decreasing
the severity of hypovitaminosis -A. Besides
biocarotenoids also β -cryproxanthin, a xant hophyll,

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derived from Flavobacterium spp and other microbial
strains, could be used for the production of vitamin A
functional food and vitamin supplements. It has been
reported that β -Cryproxanthin promote osteogenesis and
bone disease treatment, stimulat ing osteoblastic bone
formation as well as inhibiting osteoclastic bone
resorption (Yamaguchi, 2012) . Bio-riboflavin could also
be employed to produce B2 biofortified foods such as
functional baby foods, specific types of bread, cereal
based products or even dairy products as well as vitamin
B2 supplements. Unlike carotenoids, riboflavin deficiency
persists in both developing and industrialized countries,
attributed mainly to malnutrition and unbalanced diets,
lacking of dairy and meat products (Ashoori &
Saedisomeolia, 2014) . Riboflavin deficiency has been
associated with impaired vision, reduced growth rate,
oxidativ e stress, anaemia, liver and skin damage (Ashoori
& Saedisomeolia, 2014; Z. Shi et al., 2014) as well as
dysfunctions in cerebral glucose metabolism. All the
above deficiencies become evident with the development
of several health symptoms like hyperaemia, sore throat,
cheilosis, glossitis and so on (LeBlanc et al., 2013) . It
should be noted that the production of enriched with
vitamins novel functional products mig ht be either the
outcome of a complicated external addition of a microbial
pigment or the outcome of a physical complicated
biochemical process during the fermentation of products.
Cappozi et al. (2011) using roseoflavin‐resistant
Lactobacillus strains, pr oduced novel vitamin
bio‐enriched functional foods (bread and pasta) with
enhanced quality characteristics (Capozzi et al., 2011) .
Another study revealed that roseoflavin‐ resistant
Lactobacillus strains were capable of synthesizing
riboflavin in soymilk, leading to the production of novel
vitamin fortified foods with enhanced consumer appeal,
via an economically feasible and adaptable bioprocess
(Juarez del Valle, Laiño, Savoy de Giori, & LeBlanc,
2014) . Pyo et al. (2007) investigating the potential
antioxidant and angiotensin I -converting enzyme
inhibitory activity of Monascus -fermented soybean
extracts, revealed that the water extract of 1 to 3 kDa
molecular mass emerged 6.5 times higher angiotensin I –
converting enzyme inhibitory activity (65.3%) than the
control (Pyo & Lee, 2007) . This evidence highlights the
potential usage of Monascus pigments as natural and
multifunctional dietary food additives or supplements.
4.3 Pigments related bioactivities, beneficial health
effects and clinical applications
Natural colorants produced via bioprocesses possess a
wide range of biological activities including, anticancer,
antimicrobial, antimutagenic, potential antiobese effects
and in general many health promoting therapeutic
functions. It has been indicated that Monascus spp bioprocesses, lead to the production of secondary
metabolite pigments, which are capable of inhibiting
hepatitis C replication by interfering with viral RNA
polymerase activity and the mevalonate biosynthesis
pathway (Sun et al., 2012) . Traditional therapy for
chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection treatment is
carried out by the usage of interferon (IFN) and the
nucleoside analogue ribavirin. Unfortunately, several side
effects developed while using alone interferon -α (IFN) or
combin ed with ribavirin (Tanaka et al., 2009) . A major
player in HCV RNA replication is the 65 kDa HCV
NS5B protein, which has RNA dependent RNA
polymerase (RdRp) activity. Sun et al. (2012) revealed
that Monascus orange pigment (MOP) amino acid
derivatives, in which amino acids replaced the reactive
oxygen moiet y, significantly inhibited HCV replication.
This finding indicates that the antiviral activity of the
MOP derivatives is an outcome of the mevalonate
pathway modulation, since MOP compounds suppressed
the mevalonate -induced increase in HCV replication (Sun
et al., 2012) . Thinking that more than 170 mi llion humans
each year all over the world are infected with HCV,
strongly associated with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular
carcinoma, the production of natural pigments that offer
an alternative strategy for the control of HCV replication
is a real “biop roduct” breakthrough of bioprocessing
technology. Also it has been documented that Monascus
spp. fermented products might be beneficial to the
antioxidant protection system of the human body against
oxidative damage (Vendruscolo et al., 2014) . Presently,
many clinical trials have evinced that RMR is effective in
lowering low -density -lipoprotein –cholesterol levels (Li,
Shao, Li, Yang, & Chen, 2010) , attributed to its many
functional components, such as monacolin K (a total
cholesterol decreasing agent), γ -aminobutyric acid (a
hypotensive substance), and dimerumic acid (an
antioxidant). RMR wine and vinegar products have been
strongly associated with health -related functions, such as
lowering blood pressure (Chen, Zhu, Zhu, Xie, & Chen,
2011; Zou, Jia, Li, Wang, & Wu, 2013) . γ-Aminobutyric
acid existing in Monascus -fermen ted not only prevents
hypertension as a hypotensive agent but also is essential
for brain metabolism and function in vertebrates (Chiu,
Ni, Guu, & Pan, 2006).
Epidemiological and experimental research suggests the
antioxidant properties of dietary caroteno ids. Carotenoids
might prevent the onset of many diseases initiated by free
radical damage including age -related macular
degeneration, cataracts, arteriosclerosis, multiple
sclerosis, bone abnormalities, and cancers.
Haematococcuspluvialis is considered on e of the best
natural source of astaxanthin. Haematococcus astaxanthin
is used as a nutraceutical supplement with no adverse

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side-effects of its supplementation. Dietary supplements
of H. pluvialis natural astaxanthin in concentrations
ranking from 3.8 to 7.6 mg per day are commercially
available in the market, due to potential health benefits
(Shah, Liang, Cheng, & Daroch, 2016)
Astaxanthin has a wide range of applications in health
sector due to its free radical scavenging capacity. It has
been stated that the antioxidant activity astaxanthin is 100
times more effective than α -tocopherol; 65 times more
efficaciou s than vitamin C, 54 times stronger than β –
carotene and 10 times higher than β -carotene,
canthaxantin, zeaxanthin, and lutein (Lopes et al., 2009) .
A number of in vitro and in vivo assays using both animal
models and humans (Chew et al., 2011; Park, Chyun,
Kim, Line, & Chew, 2010) have shown significant effect
of carotenoids on immune function. As mentioned before
β-cryproxanthin can be produced by selected strains s uch
as B.lineus and Flavobacterium spp. It has been revealed
that this carotenoid pigment could function as health
promoting agent, preventing the development of prostate
cancer, colon cancer and rheymatoid arthritis (Kim et al.,
2012) . According to other studies, antioxidant properties
of Monascus -fermented soybean extracts were attributed
to its content of bioactive mevinolins (r= 0.85) and
isoflavone aglycones (r= 0.98), produced from soybean
during Monascus -fermentation. Also, it w as revealed that
the water extract of 1 to 3 kDa molecular mass emerged
6.5 times higher angiotensin I -converting enzyme
inhibitory activity (65.3%) than the control, evidencing
the great potential of Monascus pigments to be used as
natural and multifuncti onal dietary additives (Pyo & Lee,
2007) . These findings are very interesting demonstrating
that Monascus pigments function preventatively against
the development of several diseases, a bioactivity strongly
associated to their antioxidant activity.
Melanin, another biopigment, is also associated with
several health beneficial effects, displaying self -protective
functions such as blocking UV radiation, free radical adsorption , toxic iron chelation, scavenging of phenolic
compounds and buffering against environmental stress.
Production of melanin by newly isolated strains such as
Streptomyces kathirae SC-1 culture might lead to higher
production yields, moving in the frame of o ptimizing
bioprocess (Guo et al., 2014) . Optimization of melanin
product ion processes is of high academic interest and
more research should be carried out, aiming to produce
melanin enriched food products with increased UV
radiation blocking and antioxidant activity.
Bio-violacein, an indole derived purple biopigment,
exhibit a wide range of antimicrobial effects, towards
gram positive bacterial strains (for instance
Staphyloccocus aureus ), bacteriovorus, protozoans and
metazoans (Choi, Yoon, Lee, & Mitchell, 2015) . Despite
the wide range of academic reports demonstrating the
biological activities of violacein, it was only after 2010
that the immunomodulatory effect of violacein verified.
In a very recent study the effective violacein
gastroprotective activity toward NSAID -induced gastric
lesions was proved ( at a single oral dose of 40 mg/kg).
This activity was partially associated with PGE2 and IL –
10 level increase, while on the other hand levels of pro –
inflammatory cytokines (IL -1β, IL -6 and especially TNF –
α) were decreased by violacein. Another finding of t his
very interesting study is that violacein restores to normal
levels constitutive nitric oxide synthase (cNOS), implying
NO in gastric protection (Antonisamy et al., 2014) . The
poten tial therapeutic application of bio -violacein to
cancer chemoprevention has been the focus of current
research. Masueli et al. 2016 revealed that violacein
produced by Janthinbacterium lividum could become a
useful tool for the treatment of head and neck c ancer,
inhibiting cancer cell growth both invitro and in -vivo
(Masuelli et al., 2016) . More research should take place
regarding the therapeutic action of viol acein produced by
different microorganisms towards different types of
cancer.

Table. 4: List of pigments of natural origin related bioactivities and/or beneficial health functions
Biopigment Color Activities Reference

Monascus derivatives
yellow pigments (monascin and
ankaflavin), orange pigments
(monascorubin and
rubropunctatin), red pigments
(monascropunctamine and
rubropunctamine) Antimicrobial,
tumour suppressive,
immunosuppressive,
hypolipidaemic,
anti-HCV,
anti-hypertensio n (Chen et al., 2011; Chiu, Ni,
Guu, & Pan, 2 006; L. Li,
Shao, Li, Yang, & Chen,
2010; Sun et al., 2012;
Vendruscolo et al., 2014;
Zou et al., 2013)
Astaxanthin Pink-Red Antioxidant activity (Pérez -López et al., 2014 )
(Cyanotech, 2015 )

β-cryproxanthin

Yellow -Orange Preventive action against the
development of prostate
cancer, colon cancer and

(Kim et al., 2012)

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rheymatoid arthritis

Canthaxanthin Orange Antioxidant, Anticancer (Dufosse, 2006)
Menalin Black Self protective activities
(blocking UV radiation, free
radic al adsorption, toxic iron
chelation, scavenging of
phenolic compounds and
buffering against
environmental stress)
(Guo et al., 2014)

Violacein

Purple Antibacterial effects,
antioxidant, detoxify ROS,
potential anticancer,
curing malaria and
leishmaniasis in humans (Lopes et al., 2009;
Subramaniam, Ravi, &
Sivasubramanian, 2014;
Vynne, Mansson, & Gram,
2012)
Prodigiosin Red Antibacterial, anticancer,
potential apoptotic and
immunostimulation
properties, DNA cleavage (Lapenda, Silva, Vicalvi,
Sena, & Nascimento, 2015;
Maheswarappa, Kavitha,
Vijayarani, & Kumanan,
2013)
Riboflavin Yellow Anticancer, antioxidant (Thakur, Tomar, &
Sacchinandan De, 2016)
Torularhodin Orange -Red Antioxidant, Antimicrobial (Ungureanu & Ferdes,
2012)

V. EMERG ING EXTRACTION PROCESSES,
PURIFICATION METHODOLOGIES AND
TECHNOLOGIES FOR BIOPIGMENT
RECOVERY
Recovery of biopigments presupposes the development of
proper and efficient downstream processes. Following the
extraction of biocolors (depending the samples properties)
development of effective processes, leading to the
production of natural colors of hi gh purity is a key -step
facilitating their commercialization. Besides, biopigments
are natural polymers of high sensitivity when released
from cells. Thus, efficient development of extraction and
purification steps are of great challenge aiming to
maintain and ensure: 1) the integrity and the quality of the
final produced natural pigment 2) minimize undesirable
losses 3) optimize recovery process 4) decrease
purification costs.
Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC -CO 2) extraction is an
emerging green technolog y suitable for the development
of lipophilic molecules extraction processes, lately
diffused in industrial and lab -scale applications, replacing
traditional extraction technologies (using organic solvents
like acetone, chloroform, dichloromethane, hexane,
cyclohexane, methanol) (Mäki -Arvela, Hachemi, &
Murzin, 2014) . This current trend is mainly attributed to
various SC -CO 2 process ing advantages; low critical
temperature of carbon dioxide, moderate operation temperatures of SC-CO 2, shorter extraction times;
limitation of toxic organic solvents usage; retainment of
the sample in an oxygen -free and light -free environment;
prevention o f microbial pigments degradation (Guedes,
Amaro, & Malcata, 2011; Reyes, Mendiola, Ibanez, & del
Valle, 2014) . Supercritical CO 2 extraction has been used
for e fficient recovery of high quality carotenoids . Macías –
Sánchez et al. (2009) succeeded in obtaining 1.2%
biocarotenoids yield employing supercritical CO 2 and 5%
ethanol as co -solvent at conditions: 60°C and 400 bar
(Marcias -Sanchez, Serrano, Rodriguez, & Martinez de la
Ossa, 2009) . Pan et al. (2012) used environmentally
friendly SC – CO 2 techniques to obtain astaxanthin from
Haematococcus pluvialis . According to that study
maximum astaxanthin yiel d achieved was 73.9% (10.92
mg/g dry H. pluvialis powder) after eight cycle of
extraction cycles, under optimal operation conditions ( H.
pluvialis weight, 6.5 g; CO 2-flow rate, 6.0 NL/min;
extraction time, 20 min; extraction pressure, 4500 psi;
volume of ethanol modifier added, 9.23 mL/g; extraction
temperature, 50°C; modifier composition, 99.5%) (Pan,
Wang, Chen, & Chang, 2012) . Apart from extraction also
development of purification processes is of high
significance regarding the final quality and purity of the
recovered biopigme nt. Traditional purification processes
like adsorption column chromatography, differential
extraction, differential crystallization and countercurrent

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extraction could be used for the recovery of biopigments
(Pennachi et al., 2015) . Liquid chromatography coupled
to mass spectrometry (LC -MS) has been broadly used for
the purification and identification of carotenoids
comparing the mass spectra with databases (Stafsnes et
al., 2010) . Lycopene production by Yarrowia lipolytica
has been revealed by HPLC analyses, using as mobile
phase various compositions of water, methanol,
acetonitrile and ethyl acetate (Matthaus, Ketelhot, Gatter,
& Barth, 2014) . Gharibzahedi et al. (2012) analysed
biopigment canthaxanthin using an UV -HPLC method.
Separation took place in a Lichrospher 100 RP -18 silica
column. Acetonitrile and methanol (80:20, v/v) at a flow
rate of 2 mL/min used as the isocratic mobile phase
(Gharibzahedi, Razavi, Mousavi, & Moayedi, 2012) . A
high speed countercurrent chromatography technique has
been effectively applied for the separation and
purification of canthaxanthin from the microalga
Chlorella zofingiensis , leading to the production of a final
bioproduct of 98.7% purity from 150 mg of cr ude extracts
(H. B. Li, Fan, & Chen, 2006) .

VI. CONCLUSIONS
Pigments produced through the implementation of
bioprocesses considering microorganisms as an integral
part of the whole upstream and downstream process is
probably the most efficient and environmentally -friendly
strategy for the formation of naturally originated
colorants. On the other hand, traditional synthetic colors
for food applications is under severe censuring due to
their high pollution and their possible adverse health
effects. Thus, optimization of upstream and downstream
processes is of high priority for biocolorants pro duction.
Costless agroindustrial by -product streams could be used
as nutrient sources for the production of biocolorants
decreasing total production costs and concurrently
addressing several environmental issues regarding their
dicposal. Development of eff icient downstream processes,
regarding extraction and purification is a field of high
significance regarding efficiency of the whole production
process, final purity and quality of the bioprocessed
produced by natural colorant. Taken into consideration
the wide range of market outputs of natural pigments in
food and pharmaceutical sector accompanied with their
possible beneficial health effects, optimization of
biocolorant production processes would possible facilitate
their commercial production becoming t he years to come
the “next generation leaders in color market, partially or
even in some cases totally substituting synthetic
colorants. Also, efficient production of biocolorants could
maximize their industrial applications and lead to the
production of va rious no vel industrial food products with
several beneficial health effects
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank IKY, as t his work is part of the
post-doctoral research of Dr Dimou Charalampia granted
by IKY Fellowships of Excellence for Postgraduate
Studies in Greece -Siemens Program (Academic Year
2016 -2017) .

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