THERE is an increased interest on natural pigments to
replace some currently used synthetic dyes, since the latter
have been associated with toxic effects in foods. The red
pigment of the fungus Monascus is widely used in all the world
as food additives or pharmaceuticals. The Monascus purpureus
local strain, which was isolated from dried silage sample was
employed for red pigment production in submerged
fermentation (SmF) conditions. Different fermentation parameters
including: incubation period, temperature, initial pH of the
medium, agitation, different carbon and nitrogen sources, bioelements
and type of inoculum and its age; were carried out
under SmF conditions to enhance the red pigment production.
The maximum red pigment production (1.27 gfl ) was achieved
at incubation temperature 30 C, initial pH 5.5, agitation rate
150 rpm, 2% starch and 0.4% ammonium sulphate as carbon
and nitrogen sources, respectively, after 4 days when the
production medium inoculated with 12 h age from seed culture
inoculum. An experiment was conducted to investigate the
effect of gamma irradiation on the activity of Monascus
purpureus towards red pigment production. The maximum red
pigment production (1.9 gl~l) was obtained at 0.5 kGy dose level.
Keywords: Monascus sp., Pigments, submerged fermentation