Characterization of pigment from gram-positive and gramnegative bacteria as alternatives to synthetic dyes

The use of synthetic dyes is used to revolutionize the activities in food industries as well as the textile industries and pharmaceutical industries. The production of synthetic dyes requires harsh chemicals in addition to energy consuming processes that further increase their adverse effects to the environment. Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the bacteria strains that were used in this study because they produce pigments. The isolates were determined by using the biochemical tests and purified their pigments using the appropriate solvents. When using methanol, a pale golden pigment was obtained when using S. aureus and a blue-green pigment when using P. aeruginosa and a chloroform and hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide sequence of treatment followed by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) purity analysis was done. This natural pigment has potential, according to the laboratory results, as an alternative to the traditional synthetic dyes. The attractive characteristics of these pigments are that they have bright colors as also they can be found in the natural sources and that they can be degraded naturally making them applicable in many applications. Pigment durability in the face of environmental conditions is dependent on economic reliance on scalability tests and pigment performance of lightfastness tests. This proves that bacterial pigments are potentially viable alternatives to dyes as they can be used successfully in extracting P. aeruginosa in conjunction with S. aureus. Potentially, these promising research findings, further steps are required to translate them into commercial applications.