Sunita Sakure, Layanya Tati, Gauri Pokale, Rutika Jadhav and Manjiri Patil
Abstract
Melanin is the pigment that determines our skin and hair colour. Melanin refers to a collection of naturally occurring pigments found in most organisms. The enzyme tyrosinase oxidises the amino acid L Tyrosine before polymerising it. The colour of human black hair is caused by the presence of melanin granules in the keratin fibre. In this investigation, a bacterial species was isolated from soil to produce melanin. The isolated bacterial species was partially identified as Pseudomonas spp. by referring Bergeyâs Manual of Determinative Bacteriology on the basis of biochemical characteristics. The effect of different physical and nutritional parameters like pH, L-tyrosine concentration, and mineral salts on melanin production was checked. The production of Melanin was assayed by an extraction method. The melanin- producing strain Pseudomonas spp. isolated from soil showed a high yield of 5.23 g/l with optimum pH 9 at 37 oC. The optimized media is composed of L- tyrosine (1500 mg/l) concentration and copper sulfate as a mineral salt. The Copper sulfate enhanced the melanin production significantly. Melanin production was confirmed by its physicochemical properties. Melanin has wide applications in the cosmetics and medicinal fields. So, this study proved that Pseudomonas spp. has promising potential to be used at the industrial level for the production of melanin.