Chemical structure Monascus

FIGURE 5.2.4 Chemical structures of some Monascus pigments. 

Campoy, S. et ah. Characterization of an hyperpigmenting mutant of Monascus purpureas IBl identification of two novel pigment chemical structures, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol, 70, 488, 2006. 

MEKC has been applied for the study of the effect of Monascus pigments on the decomposition of the mutagenic 3-hydroxyamino-l-methyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole (Trp-P-2(NHOH)). The chemical structures of yellow and red pigments are shown in Fig. 2.165. 

Many secondary metabolites with complex chemical structures, including pigments (Figure 2) and monacolins (Figure 2), are synthesized from the polyketide pathway in Monascus spp. (Simpson, 1986). Several effectors controlling the polyketide synthesis of Monascus have been reported by using submerged culture systems (Lin, 1991). Considerable research has been conducted on the industrial production of Monascus in complex liquid media (Shepherd and Carels, 1983). 

FIGURE 2 Chemical structures of selected second metabolites from Monascus. (A) Monascus pigments, (B) monacolins, (C) citrinin. 

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