Red pigment producing two bacterial strains have been isolated from soil in the area of Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal province of India. The biochemical and 16s rRNA analysis have confirmed that the strains are Serratia marcescens. The GenBank accession numbers of these strains are KU726553 and KU707218. Pigment production has been optimized using various inorganic salts such as Sodium chloride (NaCl), Magnesium chloride (MgCl2), Potassium chloride (KCl), Calcium chloride (CaCl2) in the media. MgCl2 has been shown to have best effect in pigment production. Pigment has been extracted from the bacteria by mixing with methanol followed by centrifugation and finally passed through HPLC. The pigments mixed with methanol or ethanol has been left in normal room temperature for several months but the colour of the pigments remains intact. Pigment was purified through HPLC and partially identified by UV-Vis spectrometry. The Rf values of the extracted pigments are 0.88 in TLC method. Pigments have shown to have very good antioxidant activity. Pigments have antibacterial activity against E. coli, K. pneumoniae. One of them has been applied as dye for cotton and plastic materials and its potentiality as dye has been found to be very high.
Key words: 16s rRNA analysis, Antibacterial, Antioxidant, Dye, Red pigments, Serratia marcescens
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