• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1513-1520
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• 2010

A bacterium capable of producing melanin pigment in the presence of L-tyrosine was isolated from a crop field soil sample and identified as Klebsiella sp. GSK based on morphological, biochemical, and 16S rDNA sequencing. The polymerization of this pigment occurs outside the cell wall, which has a granular structure as melanin ghosts. Chemical characterization of the pigment particles showed then to be acid resistant, alkali soluble, and insoluble in most of the organic solvents and water. The pigment got bleached when subjected to the action of oxidants as well as reductants. This pigment was precipitated with $FeCl_3$, ammoniacal silver nitrate, and potassium ferricynide. The pigment showed high absorbance in the UV region and decreased absorbance when shifted towards the visible region. The melanin pigment was further charecterized by FT-IR and EPR spectroscopies. A key enzyme, 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid hydroxylase, that catalyzes the formation of melanin pigment by hydroxylation of L-tyrosine was detected in this bacterium. Inhibition studies with specific inhibitors, kojic acid and KCN, proved that melanin is synthesized by the DOPA-melanin pathway.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.51
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• pp.14.1-14.11
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• 2021

Melanin has been a widely researched pigment by scientists for decades as it is undoubtedly the most ubiquitous and ancient pigment found in nature. Melanin plays very signifcant roles in structural plumage colors in birds: it has visible light-absorbing capabilities, and nanoscale structures can be formed by self-assembling melanin granules. Herein, we review recent progress on melanin-based structural coloration research. We hope that this review will provide current understanding of melanin's structural and optical properties, natural coloration mechanisms, and biomimetic methods to implement artifcial melanin-based structural colors.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1825-1838
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• 2016

The detection of skin pigment is crucial in the diagnosis of skin diseases and in the evaluation of medical cosmetics and hairdressing. Accuracy in the detection is a basis for the prompt cure of skin diseases. This study presents a method to recognize and measure human skin pigment using Hemoglobin-Melanin (HM) coordinate. The proposed method extracts the skin area through a Gaussian skin-color model estimated from statistical analysis and decomposes the skin area into two pigments of hemoglobin and melanin using an Independent Component Analysis (ICA) algorithm. Then, we divide the two-dimensional (2D) HM coordinate into rectangular bins and compute the location histograms of hemoglobin and melanin for all the bins. We label the skin pigment of hemoglobin, melanin, and normal skin on all bins according to the Bayesian classifier. These bin-based HM projective histograms can quantify the skin pigment and compute the standard deviation on the total quantification of skin pigments surrounding normal skin. We tested our scheme using images taken under different illumination conditions. Several cosmetic coverings were used to test the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the proposed method can detect skin pigments with more accuracy and evaluate cosmetic covering effects more effectively than conventional methods.

• Food Engineering Progress
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.282-288
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• 2009

A dark brownish pigment from fruit body of Auricularia auricula was isolated and characterized in this report. The pigment was obtained with a yield of 0.61%(w/w) by alkaline extraction and subsequent purification steps. It showed the positive $FeCl_3$ test which was the indication of phenolic compounds. A synthetic melanin showed a similar spectrometric characteristics to the pigment extract regarding a characteristic UV absorption between 200-250 nm and infrared absorptions profiles in the finger print region including absorption peaks at 1701 and 1624 $cm^{-1}$. Its element analysis indicated that its atomic copmposition is close to that of DOPA melanin (eumelanin). With the result of its antioxidant activity in the TNBT (5-thio-2-nitrobenzoic acid) assay, we concluded that the dark brownish pigment from A. auricula is a melanin-like compound having a powerful antioxidative activity.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.60-69
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• 2013

Purified melanin pigment from Klebsiella sp. GSK was characterized by thermogravimetric, differential thermal, X-ray diffraction and elemental analysis. This melanin pigment is structurally amorphous in nature. It is thermally stable up to $300^{\circ}C$ and emits a strong exothermic peak at $700^{\circ}C$. Its carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen composition is 47.9%, 6.9% and 12.0%, respectively. It was used to scavenge metal ions and free radicals. After immobilizing the pigment and using it to adsorb copper and lead ions, the metal ion adsorption capacity was evaluated by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and the identity of melanin functional groups involved in the binding of metal ions was determined by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Batch adsorption studies showed that 169 mg/g of copper and 280 mg/g of lead were adsorbed onto melanin-alginate beads. The metal ion adsorption capacity of the melanin-alginate beads was relatively significant compared to alginate beads. The metal ion desorption capacity of HCl was greater (81.5% and 99% for copper and lead, respectively) than that of EDTA (80% and 71% for copper and lead, respectively). The ability of the melanin pigment to scavenge free radicals was evaluated by inhibition of the oxidation of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and was shown to be about 74% and 98%, respectively, compared with standard antioxidants.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.1074-1079
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• 1996

Physicochemical characteristics of pigment separated from cockle shell were studied. Pigment on the cockle shell was peeled with distilled water, and soaked in 4% TCA solution for 30 minutes and filtered. Filtrate was washed 3 times with distilled water and Iyophilized. Dried pigment was dissolved with 2N NaOH solution and preparative TLC with 2N NaOH : acetone(1 : 1). UV/vis spectrum of pigment separated from cockle shell and melanin as standard was same one peak at UV area and λ$_{max}$was 226nm. Dissolved property of pigment was same as that of melanin. Pigment was not ommochrome but like melanin, because it was insoluble in formic acid, whitening in $H_2O_2, $ and pattern of UV-spectrum was same as melanin. Pigment separated from cockle shell was stable at high temperatures. In thermal treatment at $70^{\circ}C, $ $80^{\circ}C, $ $90^{\circ}C$ and $100^{\circ}C$ for 8 hours, retention ratio of pigment separated from cockle shell were 95.0%, 93.3%, 90.8% and 87.6%, respectively.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.292-300
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• 1987

The ultrastructure of the tentacular pigment cells and the origin of the pigment granules in the Chinese mystery snail, Cipangopaludina chinensis malleata Reeve, are studied with electron microscope. Tentacular pigment cells of the Enail are the melanophores which contain electron dense melanosomes(melanin pigment granules) . Melanophores are distributed among the connective tissues but otter kind of dermal chromatephores are not observed. The epidermal melanin units are observed in the epithelial tissues of the tentacles. Among the several kinds of epithelial cells, only the epithelial supporting cells contain these pigment granules. Synthesis of the pigment materials is from the rough ER and pigment granules are finally being packaged and released by the Golgi complexes but limiting membrane of these granules are presumed to be originated from the smooth ER.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.48-50
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• 1995

We discovered that the Bacillus licheniformis SSA3, fermenting traditional Korean soy sauce and soybean paste, involved in the synthesis of a dark-brown pigment. This pigment produced in the minimal medium supplemented with tyrosine only as precursor. We showed that this pigment is novel, and differed from melanoidin and melanin, and an antimutagenic substance.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.134-142
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• 1989

In exopolysaccharide fermentation by Aureobasidium pulluans, the effects culture conditions (concentration of nitrogen, potassium phosphate, dissolved oxygen, and initial pH) on the production of exopolysaccharide and the appearance of melanin pigment were investigated. The results are as follows. (1) The specific growth rate and the specific production rate of exopolysaccharide were inhibited by substrate when the carbon source concentration higher than $50g\;/\;{\ell}$ and the cell growth increased with increases of nitrogen source but exopolysaccharide production decreased with the nitrogen concentration when it become greater than $1\;g\;/\;{\ell}$. (2) The maximum cell growth and the maximum exopolysaccharide production were obtained at initial pH values of 3.0 and 7.5 respectively. As the initial pH increased, the yeast-like cells increased and the increased of dissolved oxygen increased the cell growth and exopolysaccharide production. (3) As the concentration of dissolved oxygen is increased or the concentration of nitrogen source is decreased, the period of melanin pigment appearance becomes shorter and the melanin pigment never appeared when the initial pH was less than 3.0 or the potassium phosphate was not added.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.161.2-161.2
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• 2015

Melanin is a black pigment, responsible for hair and skin color. In order to find the melanin stimulatory technique which prove useful for a gray and a white hair-preventive agent or tanning agent, we developed atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) and tested for tyrosinase activity and melanin production in melanoma (B16F10) cells in vitro. We found plasma dose dependent increase in melanin production. To explore the contributing mechanism in melanin synthesis, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and MAP kinase signaling pathways were studied. Furthermore, the development of plasma technology for melanin synthesis and planning for in-vivo future studies will be discussed.