• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.143-151
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• 2001

A marine bacterium producing carotenoid was isolated from the Yosu coastal area of South Korea, which was recorded as MCK-1. It was identified as Erythrobacter sp. Optimium conditions of marine carotenoid fermentation from Erythrobacter sp. were pH 6.0, a temperature of $25^{\circ}C$, 16 mM mannitol as a carbon source, 0.5% tryptone as a nitrogen source, 0.1 mM $Fe^{+2}$ ion as a mineral source and 1$\mu$M of cyanocobalamine as a growth factor in a jar-fermentor. Erythrobacter sp. was produced 351.27 mg/100mL of the marine carotenoid in these optimum conditions. This marine carotenoid was composed of 4 different conpounds, like as notoxanthin (61.4%), can thaxanthin (24.6%), fucoxanthin (8.2%), and zeaxanthin (5.8%). Physiological properties including antibacterial activity, cytotoxic effect, antioxidative effect and free radical scavenging activity were characterized with crude carotenoid. Carotenoid exhibited no antibacterial activity against E. coli and lactobacillus bulgaricus, but showed cytotoxic effect against cancer cells such as HepG2 (Hepatocellular carcinoma, human, ATCC HB-8065) and HeLa (Cervical carcinoma, human, ATCC CCL-2) cells. The impediment ratios for HepG2 and HeLa cell were 37.14% and 33.78%, respectively. This carotenoid expressed a strong antioxidative effect (77%) against CCL-13 5 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL and 50 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL crude carotenoid, respectively.