ABSTRACT
Today’s textile dyeing industry is dominated by synthetic dyes, which got an initiation by the accidental discovery of a dye by William Henry Perkin in 1869. The gradual development in the potent chemical colours overtook the industry era, thereby affecting the environment and humans and hence led to the intense research in natural colours and dyes from flora and fauna. Though these conventional natural dyes are environment friendly, they can only supplement but an not substitute synthetic dyes due to various limitations. Microbial pigments are coloured metabolites secreted by microorganisms in stress conditions which can be an attractive source of non-toxic, biodegradable and non-carcinogenic alternatives for human use with the potential to substitute synthetic colours.
In this chapter, we discuss; the evolution of these microbial pigments, the current technology involved, the production stages, the metabolic mechanism of biosynthesis, the economics involved in pigment production, application of pigments in the textile colouration industry for therapeutic and other commercial finishes and novel strategies attempted by the various researchers. It also touches upon the bulk production of microbial pigments and their future challenges and further opportunities.
