10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 3 Issue 4 2012(October - December) lessThan i greaterThan Monascus lessThan /i greaterThan spp. namely lessThan i greaterThan Monascus sanguineus lessThan /i greaterThan was isolated from pomegranate ( lessThan i greaterThan Punica granatum) lessThan /i greaterThan . In this study, the isolated lessThan i greaterThan M. sanguineus lessThan /i greaterThan was compared with lessThan i greaterThan M lessThan /i greaterThan . lessThan i greaterThan purpureus lessThan /i greaterThan MTCC410 procured from MTCC Chandigarh, India for optimising the red pigment yield. It was observed that both strains had produced maximum red pigment on the 16 lessThan sup greaterThan th lessThan /sup greaterThan day of incubation (21.9 CVU/ml for lessThan i greaterThan M lessThan /i greaterThan . lessThan i greaterThan sanguineus lessThan /i greaterThan & 16.9 CVU/ml for lessThan i greaterThan M lessThan /i greaterThan . lessThan i greaterThan purpureus lessThan /i greaterThan ). Both strains had shown 30°C as a favourable temperature for microbial growth and pigment production. The maximum pigmentation was observed at pH 6.5 (33.9 CVU/ml) for lessThan i greaterThan Monascus lessThan /i greaterThan lessThan i greaterThan sanguineus lessThan /i greaterThan whereas lessThan i greaterThan M lessThan /i greaterThan . lessThan i greaterThan purpureus lessThan /i greaterThan produced maximum pigment at pH 5.5(16.6 CVU/ml). lessThan i greaterThan Oryza lessThan /i greaterThan spp. (local unpolished rice) was found as the best solid substrate for both the strains (M. lessThan i greaterThan sanguineus lessThan /i greaterThan 6.5CVU/gds and lessThan i greaterThan M. purpureus lessThan /i greaterThan 12.5CVU/gds). When substrates were supplemented with glucose, a multi-fold increase in the pigment yield was observed with lessThan i greaterThan M lessThan /i greaterThan . lessThan i greaterThan sanguineus, lessThan /i greaterThan whereas no positive impact of glucose was observed with lessThan i greaterThan M. purpureus lessThan /i greaterThan . For variable N sources, lessThan i greaterThan M. lessThan /i greaterThan lessThan i greaterThan sanguineus lessThan /i greaterThan showed maximum pigment with 1% peptone whereas lessThan i greaterThan M. purpureus lessThan /i greaterThan showed similar results with substrate supplemented with 5% yeast extract and MSG. Both strains had shown anti-bacterial activity against gram positive bacteria. Presence of citrinin was confirmed in both the strains by LC-MS. RASHMI DIKSHIT1 AND PADMAVATHI TALLAPRAGADA Pigment, Mycelial Growth, Citrinin, Monascus 885-895