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Production of Red Pigments by a Newly Isolated Talaromyces aurantiacus Strain with LED Stimulation for Screen Printing

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Abstract

Microbial pigments have been widely applied to printing in food, textile, and paper industries as a sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes. Herein, we isolated a novel Talaromyces aurantiacus strain with a strong ability to produce red pigments. We further studied pigment production conditions, stability, screen printing application, and bioactivities. Our results showed that sucrose was a favourable carbon source and the addition of l-histidine significantly enhanced the production of red pigments. Pigment production was strictly photo-regulated with effective wavelengths around 450 nm (blue light). We mixed the red pigments with cellulosic materials and explored their application potentials for screen printing on paper, cotton fabrics, and polymeric carriers. The printing density was significantly improved from 0.3 to 0.7 by overlay printing. T. aurantiacus pigments could be stably stored at pH 5–11, temperature – 10 to 70 °C, and redox potential − 200 to 300 mV. Moreover, the stable ranges were extended to pH 1–11 and temperature over 100 °C after screen-printed on paper. The red pigments exhibited antioxidant activity towards 2,2'-Azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonate) (IC50 10.4 mg L−1 in solution). Our results further indicated the red pigments by T. aurantiacus was environmentally friendly based on acetylcholinesterase activity assay.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2017A030310341), the Scientific Research and Technology Development Program of Guangxi (No. AA18118013-9), and the Guangzhou Science and Technology Program Key Project (No. 201704020038).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, Guangdong, China

    Xiaobei Gong, Hao Luo, Xing Wu & Hao Liu

  2. Bengbu-SCUT Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing of Biomaterials, Bengbu, 233010, Anhui, China

    Hao Liu & Chengwu Sun

  3. Department of Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Oakland University, 433 Meadowbrook Road, Rochester, MI, 48309, USA

    Shicheng Chen

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Correspondence to Hao Liu.

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Gong, X., Luo, H., Wu, X. et al. Production of Red Pigments by a Newly Isolated Talaromyces aurantiacus Strain with LED Stimulation for Screen Printing. Indian J Microbiol 62, 280–292 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12088-022-01008-x

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