ABSTRACT
Prodigiosins, a family of natural red pigments characterized by a common Pyrrolylpyrromethane skeleton are produced by various bacteria that first characterized from Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas magneslorubra, Vibrio psychroerythrous etc. In this study, different media like nutrient broth, peptone glycerol broth, powdered peanut seed broth and powdered sesame seed broth, sugar substrates (maltose and glucose) and different oils like peanut oil, sesame oil, coconut oil at different temperature were used to study the prodigiosin production in Serratia marcescens. The highest pigment production was observed in powdered peanut seed broth (37.6mg/ml) and powdered sesame seed broth (16.5mg/ml) when compared to the use of nutrient broth (0.51mg/ml) and peptone glycerol broth (0.3 mg/ml) at 280c, Nutrient broth with maltose yielded (1.82mg/ml) of prodigiosin. Among different oils, peanut oil showed high pigment production (2.72 mg/ml) and these pigment can be used to dye cotton which showed good color tone.