• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1132-1138
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• 2009

We investigated the physicochemical stabilities and biological activities of ethanol- extracted pigment from marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas psicida TA20. This bacterial pigment was very stable at a pH range of between 4.0 and 8.0 at a temperature below $40^{\circ}C$. In the presence of light, the pigment was also very stable, showing more than 90 percent remaining absorbance during 14 days at $25^{\circ}C$. The stability of the pigment, when metal ions were present, showed higher stability in all examined metal ions except for $Al^{3+}$ and $Cu^{2+}$, especially in the presence of $Fe^{2+}$. This pigment showed higher stability than other pigment extracts reported. The pigment has free-radical scavenging (3,495 ${\mu}g/ml$) activity and 44% antioxidant protective effect against DNA damage of human lymphocyte cells at a concentration of 10 ${\mu}g/ml$. The results indicate that the bacterial pigment produced a significant reduction in oxidative DNA damage. The pigment also showed antimicrobial activity against major food poisoning bacteria. Therefore, these results suggest that this bacterial pigment could be used as a natural colorant in the food industry, having the advantages of antioxidant and antimicrobial activities.