ABSTRACT
With increasing awareness of people towards health and safety, the demand for natural, harmless as well as sustainable dyes and pigments has been increasing tremendously across the world. Among the natural pigments, fungal-origin ‘mycopigments’ have emerged worldwide as safe and promising alternatives to synthetic pigments due to their wide range of applications. To date, numerous fungi have been proven as excellent producers of a diverse class of pigments. Macrofungi belonging to different taxonomic groups possess a good pigment-production potential. Plenty of unique and bright pigments with additional useful characteristics have shown their possible applications in different areas, such as health and medicine, food, beverage, cosmetic, textile and electronics. The present chapter specifically deals with the review of pigment-producing macrofungi belonging to the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. It also comprises distinct, unique and colourful pigments of macrofungi accompanied by their chemical structures.
