Textile dyes and effluents are considered as one of the worst polluters of our priceless water sources and soils. New sources of natural pigments are getting particular research interests due to the toxicity produced by synthetic colouring agents. Plant sources are being explored extensively for natural pigments but inadequate yield of those sources hampered the progression. Apart from the enormous antibacterial applications, fungi may provide a readily available alternative source of natural pigments. Here, we isolated a fungal strain from spoiled mango which is capable of producing pigments suitable for textile dyeing. The spoiled mangoes were selected as a source of different fungi. Among them one particular fungal isolate was selected for its visible production of secondary metabolites. Molecular identification using internal transcribed spacer sequencing revealed the fungi as Talaromyces verruculosus strain. The growth and pigment production of the fungi was optimised to obtain highest yield. Extracted pigment was applied to cotton fabric following a standard dyeing procedure for natural pigment. Adequate colour yield and negative cytotoxicity result suggested that the fungi source of pigment could be a potential replacement for hazardous synthetic dyes.

Ripened mangoes are perishable sometimes as they contain large amount of water and carbon sources which make it susceptible to spoilage by different fungi. This study was therefore carried out through morphological characteristics, growth characteristics and control measure of two unknown fungal strains isolated from postharvest spoiled 'Gopalvog' and 'Mollica' mango varieties. Both the colony color of fungal strain isolated from 'Gopalvog' and 'Mollica' was initially white. Surprisingly, the colony of fungal strain from 'Gopalvog' became grayish brown after 72 hours. The optimum mycelial growth of fungal strain isolated from 'Gopalvog' was obtained at pH 8, temperature 35°C and 2% glucose concentration. The optimum pH and temperature for growth of the fungal strain Original Research Article