Anthraquinones Research Paper

bstract

Anthraquinones are group of compounds belong to quinone family that have attracted the attention due to their interesting photo-activity, highly light fastness properties, stability and superior brightness. They are widely prevalence in kingdom of fungi and could be alternative sources independent of seasonal and climatic conditions compared to plant sources. In this study, More than twenty fungal isolates were identified morphologically and molecularly and selected for pigment production purpose. Pigments were extracted and characterized by qualitative and quantitate analysis based on spectrophotometry, flourometry, high performance thin layer chromatography and liquid chromatography/ mass spectra. The fungal isolates were

Resulted color is due to chromophore (molecule-specific structure); this structure absorbs the energy and produce electron excitation from an external orbital to a higher orbital; the reflected colour is non absorbed energy that will be captured by the eye (Delgado, 2000).

1.2. Natural pigments vs. synthetic pigments

Natural pigments are formed by living organisms in nature such as plants, animals and microorganisms. In contrast, the synthetic pigments are resulted through number of chemical reactions. Natural pigments have significant functions in nature. In plants, the presence of chlorophyll pigment is vital for photosynthesis. However, plant cells produced flavonoid as a response to stress conditions as protection mechanism. In addition, light energy is converted into chemical energy in plant and fungal cells using quinones pigments. On the other hand, transportation of oxygen and carbon dioxide in animal bodies require haemoglobin. Melanin pigment in human, animals and fungi play important role in protection against the sun light

(Delgado, 2000).

Natural pigments are none polluting, nor toxic. It has positive effects by its antimicrobial

Chemical structure of Anthraquinones (Caro et al., 2012).

Most natural anthraquinones colour compounds have complex structures with several functional groups affected their absorption spectra. In the UV region, 9, 10-anthraquinone derivatives show intense benzenoid absorption spectra spread within the ranges 240–330 nm

(Caro et al., 2012). Anthraquinones have attracted the attention of many researchers due to the huge applications related to their interesting photo-activity. They possess highly light fastness properties and relatively stable and have superior brightness. (Caro et al., 2012). Francis et al.

(2017), reported that some of the anthraquinones are considered as fluorophores due to their ability to re-emit light at longer wavelength with higher intensities. The absorbed wavelengths, time before emission and efficiency of transferred energy depend on the hydroxyl substituents and the position at which it bind to anthraquinones tricyclic structure. The excitation spectrum is less sharp than the emission spectrum, and it is lower energy and longer wavelength.

1.5 Fungal Anthraquinones

Anthraquinones are widely prevalence in the kingdom of fungi and could be alternative