Research advances in yellow pigments derived from Monascus, an edible filamentous fungus

Monascus spp., as an important model microorganism in food and medical research, has been used in China for thousands of years. Monascus spp. can produce many beneficial secondary metabolites, including pigments (food colorants), monacolins (cholesterollowering agents), γ -amino butyric acid (antihypertensive substance), and dimerumic acid (antioxidant), and some Monascus strains can also produce citrinin, a nephrotoxic metabolite. Currently, the main industrialized production through Monascus is monascus red pigment and monacolin K. The monascus yellow and orange pigments possessing high protein coloring ability and many biological effects have not been industrially produced by fermentation so far. However, to our knowledge, few systematic review related to monascus yellow pigments research have been reported. This paper provides a systematic review the breeding of Monascus strain and its fermentation processes optimization, the identification of monascus yellow pigments and their structures, the pharmacological properties and biosynthesis pathway of monascus yellow pigments. Finally, an academic view on the future of monascus yellow pigments from the perspective of industrialized production is presented.