Recent exploration of bioactive pigments from marine bacteria

Abstract

Microbial pigments of marine origin are gaining increasing attention in current research due to their widely perceived applications as natural food colorants, antioxidants, antimicrobial compounds, anticancer agents, and immune stimulators. This review is a short acknowledgement of the significant progress achieved over the past five years of studies on pigments from marine bacterial isolates. Herein, we also discuss the typical challenges, as well as recent technical developments, in isolating and cultivating marine bacteria and in conducting determination of pigments as critical considerations in doing research in this field.