Production of Natural Pigments by Penicillium brevicompactum Using Agro-Industrial Byproducts

The demand for natural pigments industrial applications has significantly increased. Penicillium brevicompactum was recently reported as a promising producer using submerged fermentation and synthetic culture medium containing lactose. In this work, pigment production by P. studied under different conditions, namely, with free (SmF) immobilized mycelium (SmFi), solid-state (SSF). potential of media composed agro-industrial byproducts (cheese-whey (CW) corn steep liquor (CSL)) investigated the first time low-cost alternatives to brevicompactum. fungus showed great adaptability types fermentation, being able synthesize all tested conditions. A 34.6 g/L CW 8 CSL proved be most suitable alternative medium, especially SmF SmFi. Our data also show that mixtures (yellow, orange, red) can produced depending on composition type fermentation. Additionally, immobilization reuse biomass produce were demonstrated time, suggesting possibility operating repeated batch mode at an scale.