Production of pigment using Aspergillus tamarii: New potentials for synthesizing natural metabolites

The importance of the current research is to isolate the pigment-producing fungal species from the pomegranate fruit using Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA) and characterized as Aspergillus tamarii by 18S rRNA sequencing. Aspergillus tamarii was allowed for mass cultivation in the pigment production using Sabouraud Dextrose broth and incubated at 25 +/- 2 degrees C for 28 days. Pigment production by Aspergillus tamarii was confirmed by OD510. Harvesting of pigment was done after 28 days of incubation by filtration with cellulose filter paper having porous size of 20 mu m and it was purified by extraction using 95% v/v of ethanol as well column chromatography techniques with 95% v/v of ethanol. The fractions obtained from the column chromatography techniques were allowed for the phytochemical analysis and antimicrobial activity of the pigment was tested. The results observed that the high distinctive antibacterial activity was obtained against Streptococcus pyogenes and Escherichia coli and the high antifungal activity was obtained against Chrysosporium keratinophilum and Candida albicans. The thermal stability of the pigment was investigated by determining the thermal degradation constant (D-c), half-life (t(1/2)), and activation energy (E-a). Due to an increase in the degradation rate of the pigment, the half-life of the pigment was decreased. The maximum value has been obtained as 35.4 kcal mol(-1) for activation energy (E-a), 288.8 min for half time (t(1/2)), and 0.004 min(-1) for degradation constant (D-c). (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.