Carotenoid pigment production from Yeast: Health benefits and their industrial applications

Abstract

Carotenoids are natural pigments with important biological activities, such as antioxidant and provitamin A activity, that can be either extracted from plants and algae or synthesized by various microorganisms, including bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi, and microalgae. Advantages of microbial production include the ability of microorganisms to use a wide variety of low cost substrates, the better control of cultivation, and the minimized production time. Yeasts are more convenient than algae or molds for large scale production in fermenters, due to their unicellular nature and high growth rate. Carotenoids have good effect on human health, such as pro-vitamin A, antioxidant, anticancer, antiobesity effect and anabolic effect on bone components. Currently, carotenoids are used commercially as feed additives, animal feed supplements, natural food colorants, nutrient supplement and more recently, as nutraceuticals for cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes.