title: Sequential fungal fermentation-biotransformation process to produce a red pigment from sclerotiorin.
abstract: The fungus Penicillium sclerotiorum produces sclerotiorin, an orange compound closely related to the useful food coloring pigments produced by Monascus species. The high productivity, together with several biological activities reported for sclerotiorin highlights its potential application in food industry. In this work, sclerotiorin was obtained as the major metabolite produced in liquid fermentation by P. sclerotiorum standing for 30% of the fungal dry extract. Modulation of sclerotiorin color was accomplished by biotransformation using Beauveria bassiana generating a red derivative with 13.8% yield. Color modification was caused by fungal-mediated substitution of oxygen by nitrogen in the pyrone ring changing the molecule's chromophore. A derivative, 1-methyl sclerotiorin was synthesized from sclerotiorin using diazomethane and fed to B. bassiana. In this case, substituent at C-1 avoided heteroatom substitution. Sclerotiorin derivatives obtained in the present show the great potential of sclerotiorin derivatives as food colorants.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
authors.forename: Dhionne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Corrêia Gomes
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Electronic address: jat@qui.ufmg.br.
authors.forename: Jacqueline Aparecida
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Takahashi
mesh_terms: D001578:Benzopyrans / Q000737:chemistry*; D005285:Fermentation; D005505:Food Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D005658:Fungi / Q000737:chemistry*; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001578:Benzopyrans; D005505:Food Coloring Agents; D010860:Pigments, Biological; C101449:sclerotiorin
keywords: Azaphilones; Biotransformation; Cholesterol (PubChem CID: 5997); Food colorants; Natural products; Sclerotiorin; Sclerotiorin (PubChem CID: 6436015); Tartrazine (PubChem CID: 164825); Theaflavin (PubChem CID: 114777)