Influence of baffled in the production of natural colorants in orbital shaker

Fungi species can be an alternative source of natural colorants because the range of colors that they can produce in some cases with biological activity. This work evaluated the production of yellow (YC) and orange (RC) colorants by Talaromyces amestolkiae in orbital shaker using conventional Erlenmeyers flasks (without baffles) and with two, three and four baffles. The culture media was CYA modified and the experiments were carried out at 150 rpm, 30°C during 216 hours. After the bioprocess, the fermented broth was filtered and the supernatant was used to determined the colorants production (spectrophotometric analysis at 400 and 490 nm to yellow and orange colorants, respectively), sugar consumption (DNS method) and pH analysis. According to the results, the presence of baffles (independent of amount) not influenced the colorants production. The highest YC (5.12 UA) and RC (2.34 UA) production was obtained in the flask without baffles. It is known from the literature that an improvement of RC production, which is of more industrial interest, can be achieved varying the fermentation condition. However, the relation among the YC and RC was kept around 2.0 in all conditions evaluated. Although the baffles generate bigger friction between the microbial cells and facilitated the breakup of cells to product liberation, there was changed only at the cells morphology and no in the extracellular production. As conclusion, flasks Erlenmeyers with baffles not improved the production of colorants by T. amestolkiae in submerged culture but it changes the cell morphology.