A Potential Application of Microbial Pigment: An Alternative to Synthetic Dye & Colourants

Dye pollution is becoming more and more of a worry for the environment. Dye removal from the environment is necessary because dye disposal in water resources has detrimental aesthetic and health implications. A well-known technology for all fibers, textiles, and apparel in the wet processing of textiles is the textile printing branch. When printing, colors are applied to specific areas of the fabric rather than the entire piece. Since the Stone Age, natural colorants derived from ores, insects, plants, and animals have been employed. Despite having a dangerous impact on people, animals, and the environment, synthetic dyes, which replaced natural pigments in the middle of the 19th century, continue to dominate the market to the fullest extent. Bacterial pigments provide intriguing alternatives to synthetic pigments for a variety of uses because they degrade more quickly and are more environmentally friendly. A few bacterial pigments can currently be produced by the industry for use in food, medicine, cosmetics, and textiles. The key technological problem is the extraction of bacterial pigments in reasonably pure and concentrated forms. Due to the growing consumer desire for more natural products, there has been an increasing tendency in recent decades to replace synthetic colorants with natural pigments. In many aspects of daily life, including food production, the textile and paper industries, agricultural practices and research, and water science and technology, natural pigments and synthetic colors are widely employed. Natural pigments exhibit advantageous biological properties as antioxidants and anticancer agents in addition to their capability to boost the marketability of items.