Effect of dissolved oxygen concentration on red pigment and citrinin production by Monascus purpureus ATCC 36928

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira,D. G.
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Tonso,A., Kilikian,B. V.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-66322008000200004
• topic: Agitation speed; Citrinin; Dissolved oxygen; Monascus; Red pigments

The present study investigated the effects of agitation speed, N (200, 500, 600 or 700 rpm), and dissolved oxygen concentration, C (120, >70, 70, 60, 10 or < 10%), on red pigment and citrinin production by Monascus purpureus ATCC 36928, cultivated in liquid medium by a batch process. The gas flow rate was the same for all runs with C controlled by means of the incoming gas composition control (air/N2 or air/O2). From the response surface plots it can be verified that the effect of C was greater than that of N on the production of both metabolites. The absorbance for red pigments varied from 1.6 U (C< 10%; N=200 rpm) up to 3.3 U (C=60%; N=600 rpm), an increase of 106%, while citrinin concentration increased 257%, from 14.2 to 50.7 mg.L-1. The most appropriate conditions were C=60% and N=600rpm, under which the highest red pigment absorbance (3.3U) and half of the highest citrinin concentration were obtained.