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FOOD AND COSMETICS
NATURAL COLOURANTS
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Artificial colourants are receiving increasing scientific, regulatory, and media attention regarding potential negative effects of their bulk use in consumer products. Environment- friendly production of natural dyes/colourants through specially ``designed`` microbial cells holds huge promise in addressing the current concerns and risks.
At Lorven Biologics Germany, we produce various natural colourants of high purity and food-grade quality. This is achieved through biotechnological processes based on fermentation and using genetically modified probiotic microorganisms. Our process is environment-friendly, resource-saving, cost-effective and avoids the use of hazardous chemicals, as compared to the conventional manufacturing of chemical dyes/colourants. The colourants are nature-derived and biodegradable, thus offering a perfect "green" solution to the environment pollution caused by accumulation of actual chemical colourants and the hazardous effluents of the chemical manufacturing processes behind.
Microbes as artists: dyeing with metabolic engineering
We achieve bi-colour and multi-colour metabolomics of natural plant dyes and genome integrations for the production of target colours through metabolic pathway engineering/synthetic biology, offering you the full colour palette for your use.
Our bio-strategy:
(a) Yeast synthetic biology and pathway engineering targeting plant colourants including.
- Anthocyanin
- ß-Carotene
- Betalain
- Indigotin
- Violacein
b) Promoter engineering for constitutive and inducible switching mechanisms.
d) Host strains used: IP-free wild-type yeast (S. Cerevisiae) with the ability to work at any scale.
Anthocyanin
These are blue, red, or purple pigments found in plants, and well-known as anti-oxidants. Also possess antidiabetic, anticancer,
anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anti-obesity effects, as well as prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Anthocyanins represent a natural alternative
to synthetic dyes in cosmetics. At Lorven, we are developing yeast-based platform technology for production of all four types of natural Anthocyanins.
ß-Carotene
ß-Carotene is the red/orange pigment found in flowers, fruits and vegetables. Besides being an important anti-oxidant, ß-Carotene is the precursor of vitamin A in humans. It has protective properties against cancer, and it stimulates the immune system. Using yeast metabolic engineering tools, we developed ß-Carotene producing yeast strains.
Betalain
Betalains are a class of violet (betacyanins) and yellow (betaxanthines) water-soluble pigments, found exclusively in the plant order Caryophyllales. Betalains constitute a group of compounds with great potential for application in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry due to their pigmentation, antioxidant, antimicrobial properties. We demonstrate the complete microbial production of Betalain from glucose in yeast for on-demand production of this natural pigment.
Indigotin
Indigo is a natural blue color dye extracted from the leaves of some plants of the Indigofera genus, which is also highly useful cosmetic/personal care industry. Natural indigo pigment is known for being strongly beneficial for hair health and providing soothing effects on skin by reducing inflammation, redness and irritation. We are currently developing a yeast strain for bulk production of Indigotin.
Violacein
Violacein, an indole-derived, purple-colored natural pigment isolated from Chromobacterium exhibits multiple biological activities based on anti-tumor, anti-microbial and antioxidant properties. In cosmetic industry it has been increasingly used as a natural pigment with as a natural pigment with anti-acne/anti-fungal activity. We have developed a recombinant yeast strain capable of producing Violacein in gram scale.
Our services:
- We offer a complete process for the production of ß-Carotine, Betalain and Violacein off the shelf.
- For any other requirements, such as other colours, we can quickly develop the customised process.
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