Sir: In previous papers from our laboratory, ML236B, a metabolite of Penicillium citrinum that was isolated as an inhibitor of cholesterol synthesis1), was shown to have hypocholesterolemic activity in several animal species2,3). Further work in this laboratory to search for microbial metabolites having cholesterol-lowering activity led to the isolation of a new active compound (designated as m...

BACKGROUND Traditional submerged fermentation mainly accumulates intracellular orange pigments with absorption maxima at 470 nm, whereas extractive fermentation of Monascus spp. with Triton X-100 can promote the export of intracellular pigments to extracellular broth, mainly obtaining extracellular yellow pigments with absorption maxima at approximately 410 nm. In this study, a strain of Monasc...

Six azaphilonoid derivatives, including two new blue fluorescent monapurfluores A (1) and B (2), two known pyridine-containing molecules, monascopyridines C (3) and D (4), and two known monasfluores A (5) and B (6), were isolated and characterized from red mold rice fermented by Monascus purpureus NTU 568. Structural elucidation of new isolates was based on nuclear magnetic resonance (1H- NMR, ...

This paper describes the nutritional requirements for the improvement of growth and sporulation of several strains of Monascus purpureus on solid state cultivation. The findings revealed that glucose enhanced growth of all M. purpureus strains tested but inhibited the sporulation rate. On the other hand, sucrose induced sporulation but inhibited production of cell mass. A combination of glucose...

Talaromyces atroroseus is a known producer of Monascus colorants suitable for the food industry. Furthermore, genetic tools have been established that facilitate elucidation and engineering of its biosynthetic pathways. Here, we report the draft genome of a potential fungal cell factory, T. atroroseus IBT 11181 (CBS 123796).

We report a case of onychomycosis from a 71-year old man which was caused by Monascus ruber. The diagnosis was based on culture morphological characteristics on Sabouraud’s Dextrose agar and Malt Extract agar. The patient was successfully treated with oral terbinafine.

∗ Corresponding author Albino strain KB20M1 of Monascus purpureus was genetically transformed to hygromycin B resistance with cosmid pMOcosX, using biolistic bombardment. Conidia and mycelial fragments were used as the recipient material and rupture disk strengths of 6.2 and 9.3 MPa each yielded a transformed isolate from five bombardments. Southern analysis suggested a single copy of the cosmi...

Lovastatin production is dependent on the substrates provided. We investigated how several carbon and nitrogen sources in the medium affect lovastatin production by Monascus pilosus. M. pilosus required a suitable concentration of organic nitrogen peptone for high lovastatin production. As sole carbon source with peptone, although glucose strongly repressed lovastatin production, maltose was re...