e-ISSN: 3107-6203

Authors: Filipe Augusto Tironi Alves1, Alice Ferreira-Silva 1, Ivanildo Evódio Marriel 2, Gabriel Franco dos Santos 1, Jacqueline Aparecida Takahashi 1, * 

1 Department of Chemistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Av. Antônio Carlos, CEP 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil; 

2 Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Centro Nacional de Pesquisas de Milho e Sorgo, EMBRAPA/CNPMS, Rod. MG 424, km 45, 35701-970, Sete Lagoas, MG, Brazil. *Email: jacqueline@ufmg.br 

Abstract

Azaphilones are an important class of secondary metabolites derived from the polyketide pathway. These metabolites have an intense yellow-orange-red pallet of colour and have been studied as promising natural pigments for use in the food industry. On a screening with 30 fungi isolated from soil and cultivated in different conditions, a fungal species furnished an orange extract containing a very major metabolite, as determined by HPLC analysis. The species was identified Penicillium maximae by molecular biology and morphological studies, and it was selected to determine the major secondary metabolites responsible by the colour present in the extract. The dichloromethane extract prepared from P. maximae was column chromatographed leading to the isolation of sclerotiorin (1, 16.36 % yield), eupenicilazaphilone B (2, 0.77 % yield) and sclerotioramin (3, 1.05 % yield). Sclerotiorin yield is encouraging for industrial production. These azaphilones of orange, yellow and red colour respectively, are the major metabolites produced by P. maximae on a culture medium containing peptone as a differential. High concentration of sucrose and the presence of iron ions in the culture medium did not improve the metabolites yield. P. maximae is, therefore, a good source of pigments for potential food, pharmaceutical and dyeing applications.

Keywords: Food industry, Microbial metabolites, Natural dye, Screening, Soil fungi

Document Type: Original Article

Citation: Alves, F. A. T., Ferreira-Silva, A., Marriel, I. E., dos Santos, G. F., & Takahashi, J. A. (2025). Azaphilone pigments from Penicillium maximae. Mycological Spectrum 1(1):18-27.

Received: 2 February 2025 | Accepted: 8 May 2025 | Published: 18 May 2025 

Handling Editor: Dr. Shilpa A. Verekar | Reviewers: Prof. Laurent Dufossé, Dr. Sunil Kumar Deshmukh

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64993/MS.1.1.2