Melanin from the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Azotobacter chroococcum: a spectroscopic characterization.

ABSTRACT: Melanins, the ubiquitous hetero-polymer pigments found widely dispersed among various life forms, are usually dark brown/black in colour. Although melanins have variety of biological functions, including protection against ultraviolet radiation of sunlight and are used in medicine, cosmetics, extraction of melanin from the animal and plant kingdoms is not an easy task. Using complementary physicochemical techniques (i.e. MALDI-TOF, FTIR absorption and cross-polarization magic angle spinning solid-state (13)C NMR), we report here the characterization of melanins extracted from the nitrogen-fixing non-virulent bacterium Azotobacter chroococcum, a safe viable source. Moreover, considering dihydroxyindole moiety as the main constituent, an effort is made to propose the putative molecular struc

SUBMITTER: Banerjee A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3887007 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature