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Review
. 2021 Feb 6;11(2):92.
doi: 10.3390/metabo11020092.

Carotenoids and Some Other Pigments from Fungi and Yeasts

Alexander Rapoport  1 , Irina Guzhova  2 , Lorenzo Bernetti  3 , Pietro Buzzini  3 , Marek Kieliszek  4 , Anna Maria Kot  4
Affiliations
Review

Carotenoids and Some Other Pigments from Fungi and Yeasts

Alexander Rapoport et al. Metabolites. .

Abstract

Carotenoids are an essential group of compounds that may be obtained by microbiological synthesis. They are instrumental in various areas of industry, medicine, agriculture, and ecology. The increase of carotenoids' demand at the global market is now essential. At the moment, the production of natural carotenoids is more expensive than obtaining their synthetic forms, but several new approaches/directions on how to decrease this difference were developed during the last decades. This review briefly describes the information accumulated until now about the beneficial effects of carotenoids on human health protection, their possible application in the treatments of various diseases, and their use in the food and feed industry. This review also describes some issues that are linked with biotechnological production of fungal and yeasts carotenoids, as well as new approaches/directions to make their biotechnological production more efficient.

Keywords: carotenoids; pigments; yeast.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Current and potential use of carotenoids.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The structural formula of β-carotene.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The structural formula of astaxanthin.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The structural formula of torulene.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The structural formula of torularhodin.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Possible positive effects of carotenoids on human health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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