Isolation, Characterization and Optimization of Pigment-producing Bacteria from Different Sources in Ogwa, Esan West Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria

Staphylococcus species have capability to produce pigments such as carotenoids, melanin and staphloxanthin which can be used in the applications of industries such as food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Hence, the objective of this paper was to isolate, optimize, characterize and identify of pigment-producing bacterial from soil, water, food around Ogwa, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria using appropriate standard techniques. The microbial load of the bacterial isolates ranges from 2.20x104 cfu/ml to 7.0x104 cfu/ml. All the isolates produced a yellow-colored pigment. During optimization studies, maximum pigment production was observed at pH range of 5 to 7, the temperature of 30, 37 and 42 ℃, inoculum size up to 1% with NaCl concentration of 0.5%, OD at 540 nm respectively. It was observed that peptone worked best for enhancement of pigment production. This findings showed that the bacterial isolates were able to produce pigments under the influence of different nutrition and environmental variability implementing that the bacteria are potential sources for the synthesis of pigments in industries. Hence, the objective of this paper is to isolation, optimization, characterization and identification of pigment-producing bacterial from soil, water, food around Ogwa, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria