Monascus Pigments Essay

Monascus species are known to produce useful secondary metabolite called Monascus pigments. The pigments come in different variety of colours; red, yellow and orange. Among these, the red pigment is of special interest since true red natural pigments suitable for food use are difficult to obtain, therefore, there is the need to isolate red pigment from Monascus pigment. Monascus pigment is reported to have potential for therapeutic use and also in the food industry as colour intensifier and food additives. It has also been use in meat products to substitute nitrites which is toxic. With all these useful characteristics, it has been discovered that Monascus species co-produce mycotoxin Citrinin, a hepato-nephrotoxic compound in humans and Monascopyridines. Current studies on Monascus focus on how to minimize or eliminate citrinin from the useful pigment to improve its quality.

Key words: pigment, food, citrinin, Monascus species.

Introduction
Pigments are compounds with important characteristics for many industrial uses. In the food industry, they are used as additives, colour intensifiers and antioxidants. Pigments come in a variety of colours, some of which are water soluble [1]. There are a number of natural colorants, but only a few are available in sufficient quantity for industrial use, because they

Therefore, the pigment intensity is an important indicator of the antioxidant activity of Monascus. Monascus pigments have been used widely as traditional food additives in East Asia [16]. Monascus red pigment has also been use in meat products to substitute nitrites [16]. As reported by [17], the red polyketide pigments of the fungus Monascus are widely used as natural food colorant in Oriental countries. These filamentous fungi were used to make rice wine, soy bean cheese and angkak which are red rice in many Asian countries like Japan and China for centuries