Acute toxicity and anti-enterotoxigenic activity of pigment extracted from Micrococcus roseus.

Microbial pigments are considered as one of the main sources of natural types, and the attention to them is increasing in the food and pharmaceutical industries. This study aimed to investigate the effects of pigments extracted from Micrococcus roseus (PEM) on the gene expression of a and b staphylococcal enterotoxins (sea and seb) and their acute toxicity. Real-time PCR was used to study the anti-enterotoxigenic activity of PEM against Staphylococcus aureus at sub-inhibitory concentrations. In addition, the acute toxicity of PEM was evaluated on albino mice through alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferas (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) of liver and its histopathological changes. Based on the results, the expression of sea and seb was decreased in the presence of PEM at sub-inhibitory concentrations. The 2-∆∆CT was measured 0.02 and 0.01 for the expression of sea and seb of S. aureus grown in the MHB containing 16 mg/ml PEM. The results showed that the expression of seb is more sensitive to PEM compared to the expression of sea. After treatment of mice with PEM for two weeks, the condition of mice was normal, and the results of liver enzymatic activities and histopathological changes showed insignificant difference compared to the control sample.

Cracking spoilage in jar cream cheese: Introducing, modeling and preventing.

This study aimed to investigate the modeling of antimicrobial activity (AA) of nisin and sorbate on Clostridium sporogenes in jar cream cheese (JCC) using the linear regression (LR), multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network, and reduced error pruning tree (REPTree) methods, in order to prevent the late blowing defect (LBD) in the cheese. Both preservatives used in JCC samples showed AA against C. sporogenes; so that sorbate at all the concentrations used in JCC samples inhibited cracking spoilage during storage period at 35 °C. However, nisin could not inhibit cracking spoilage at concentration of 30 ppm in the samples, and a higher concentration of it was needed. The three models used in this study, followed the similar pattern in both training and validation datasets for nisin and sorbat in JCC. The R2 and root mean square error (RMSE) values of training and validation datasets showed the superiority of the REPTree model compared to the MLP and LR models (conventional methods) in the modeling of AA of nisin and sorbate against C. sporogenes in JCC.

Some biological activities of pigments extracted from Micrococcus roseus (PTCC 1411) and Rhodotorula glutinis (PTCC 5257).

The importance of replacing synthetic pigments with natural types is increasing day by day in the food industry due to the harmful effects of some synthetic pigments. Microorganisms are a major source of natural pigments, which nowadays have attracted the attention of researchers. In this study, carotenoid pigments were produced by Micrococcus roseus and Rhodotorula glutinis, and some of their biological properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities were evaluated. Given the results, bacteria, especially gram-positive bacteria, had higher sensitivity to the pigments extracted from M. roseus (PEM) and R. glutinis (PER) compared to molds so that Bacillus cereus and Alternaria citri had the highest and the lowest sensitivity, respectively. PER showed a higher antioxidant activity compared with PEM in the various methods of measuring antioxidant activity. In vitro and in vivo anti-tumor-promoting activities of PER were measured significantly more than PEM (P <0.05). Both pigment extracts remarkably inhibited the 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced inflammation, so that ID50 (50% inhibitory dose) of PEM and PER were 0.22 and 0.09 mg/ear, respectively.

Optimisation of ultrasound-assisted extraction of natural pigment from annatto seeds by response surface methodology (RSM).

The present study reports on the extraction of natural pigment from annatto seeds. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the effect of process variables on the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). Four independent variables including temperature (20-80°C), sonication time (2-10 min), duty cycle (0.2-0.8s) and the ratio of seeds to the solvent (5-20%) were studied. According to the results, the optimal UAE condition was obtained with a temperature of 72.7°C, extraction time of 7.25 min, the ratio of seed to solvent of 14% and duty cycle of 0.8s. At these conditions, extraction yield determined as 6.35% and the absorbance value as 0.865%. The experimental values under optimal condition were in good consistent with the predicted values, which suggested UAE is more efficient process as compared to conventional extraction.

Genetic algorithm-artificial neural network and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system modeling of antibacterial activity of annatto dye on Salmonella enteritidis.

Annatto is commonly used as a coloring agent in the food industry and has antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. In this study, genetic algorithm-artificial neural network (GA-ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) models were used to predict the effect of annatto dye on Salmonella enteritidis in mayonnaise. The GA-ANN and ANFIS were fed with 3 inputs of annatto dye concentration (0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4%), storage temperature (4 and 25°C) and storage time (1-20 days) for prediction of S. enteritidis population. Both models were trained with experimental data. The results showed that the annatto dye was able to reduce of S. enteritidis and its effect was stronger at 25°C than 4°C. The developed GA-ANN, which included 8 hidden neurons, could predict S. enteritidis population with correlation coefficient of 0.999. The overall agreement between ANFIS predictions and experimental data was also very good (r=0.998). Sensitivity analysis results showed that storage temperature was the most sensitive factor for prediction of S. enteritidis population.