The potentiality of UV absorption by isolated pigments from Penicillium and Aspergillus for using sunscreen compounds

Microbial pigments are nowadays employed in many different industries. Due to carcinogenic ability of sunrays, protection of skin from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun by using an effective sunscreen is necessary. This study aimed to evaluate the sun protection factor (SPF) of the pigments obtained from Penicillium and Aspergillus fungi in absorption of ultraviolet radiation, in vitro.
In this study, fungal strains were randomly isolated from air and soil. The fungal pigments were extracted using Water and DMSO solvents. Following a filtration step, these pigment solutions were powdered using lyophilization and drying in room temperature. After three time dilution steps, absorbance of each sample at 200-700nm wavelengths was measured by a spectrophotometer to evaluate SPF of these samples.
Among the species studied in this study, Aspergillus and Penicillium showed the highest absorption at 300 and 290 nm, respectively. These ability is equal to 272 and 140 sun protection factors, respectively, which was the best protective ability of these isolates from ultraviolet rays. Furthermore, the yellowish and black pigments showed the best UV absorption ability.
Based on the results of this study, the pigments isolated from the fungus Penicillium and Aspergillus showed high protection against UV rays. Therefore, it is possible to replace chemical compounds used in cream sunscreen with these natural pigments.