A study of prodigiosin extracted from Serratia marcescens and its purification using the preparative-HPLC technique

ABSTRACT

Aims@#The aim of this study was to determine which natural and inexpensive materials induced the highest production of prodigiosin pigment in local Serratia marcescens isolates. Furthermore, this study focused on purifying and identifying a single red pigment among several pigments in the crude extract of S. marcescens by HPLC. @*Methodology and results@#Two isolates of S. marcescens (S1 and S2) were isolated from urine and a urinary catheter. Isolates were identified based on the red color of colonies when growing on nutrient agar medium incubated at 28 °C, which gave an adverse reaction to Gram stain; the diagnosis was completed with several biochemical tests. The highest yield of this pigment was investigated using Luria-Bertani (LB) medium supplemented with available materials (sesame, peanut, and coconut meat seed powders). Results showed that LB containing sesame powder medium induced the highest prodigiosin production in S1 and S2 isolates (179.398 and 107.280 unit/cell, respectively). On the other hand, S1 and S2 isolates on LB supplemented with peanut medium produced 150.492 and 93.970 units/cell of prodigiosin, respectively. However, coconut meat supplement through LB failed to induce bacteria to synthesize the pigment. The pigment was identified in a retention time equal to 2.2 min through crude extraction and prodigiosin (with red color) was purified successfully by the preparative-HPLC technique.@*Conclusion, significance and impact of study@#This study successfully showed that natural and inexpensive products were able to induce prodigiosin pigment production from local S. marcescens isolates. Results showed that sesame seed powder was the best carbon source that induced prodigiosin, followed by peanut seed powder. Prodigiosin was identified and purified successfully by the preparative-HPLC technique. Research findings suggest that low-cost materials could be used to reduce the cost of prodigiosin production.