Production and characterization of orange pigment produced by Halophilic bacterium Salinococcus roseus isolated from Abattoir soil

The color determines the acceptance of a product and has paramount influence on human life. Many synthetic colors used in foodstuff, dyestuff, cosmetics and pharmaceutical manufacturing pose various hazardous effects like allergies, tumor, cancer and severe damages to the vital organs.1 Moreover, the effluent of synthetic dyes poses series threat to the environment conservation. Consequently, many synthetic colors have been banned due to their toxicological problems. With the increasing awareness about the toxic effects of synthetic colors and consumer safety, there is an increasing interest in the development of colors from natural sources.2 Pigments are the chemical substances that absorb the light of visible region. They produced color because of the chromophore, a molecule specific structure which captures the sun energy and causes an excitation of electron from external orbital to higher orbital, where the non-absorbed energy is refracted or reflected to be captured by eye.3 As the present trend throughout the world is shifting towards the use of eco-friendly and biodegradable commodities, the demand for natural colorants is increasing day by day. Natural pigments are sourced from ores, insects, plants and microbes. Among microbes, bacteria have immense potential to produced diverse bio-products and one such bio-product is pigments. Biopigments produced from microorganisms are preferred over those from plants because of their stability4 and availability for cultivation throughout the year.5 Bacterial pigment production is now one of the emerging field of research to demonstrate its potential for various industrial applications.6 Most of the bacterial pigment production is still at the R&D stage. Hence, work on the bacterial pigments should be intensified especially in finding cheap and suitable growth medium which can reduce the cost and increase its applicability for industrial production.7 Materials and methods