LAUSR

The rapid development is leading the demand of colors in biotechnology related to food, textile, medicine and cosmetics. The health hazards of synthetic colors compel industries to adapt natural pigments. “Among them; microbial pigments most important and very diverse in nature.” In this group the fungal pigments are of high demand due to mostly being extracellular metabolites, easy to extract and have enormous biotechnological applications. “Almost all genus of fungi produce efficient amount of pigment which depend and vary from species to species. Yeast, basidiomycetes, Zygomycetes, filamentous fungi, endophytic fungi, marine fungi and halophiles are most important groups which produce useful pigments. The pigments mostly found in kingdom fungi include melanin, phenazines, flavins, carotenoids, violacein, indigo, ankaflavins, canthaxanthin, prodigiosin and moascins. These pigments are being extracted on industrial scale for many biotechnological purposes. This review is intended to highlight the importance of pigments produced by fungi. The research on pigments producing fungi can lead to the development of industries related to textile, food, medicine, and cosmetics.