Most colors are eco-criminals: here's how to make purple more environmentally friendly

The colors of our clothes, cosmetics, furniture, and all sorts of things around us are almost all based on crude oil, which makes them far from environmentally
friendly.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have teamed up with Danish company Octarine Bio to develop new sustainable pigments
.
Together, they will transfer nature's own method of color production to a
yeast tank.
As a bonus, we will receive a color
with effective antibacterial properties.

Have you ever wondered where the blue in your jeans comes from? Or pink eyeshadow in your makeup bag? Or paint on your bike?

The color industry is a huge industry, with tens of billions in revenue
every year.
In 99% of cases, colors created by humans are synthetic
.
They are mostly based on crude oil and are produced
in processes that are extremely harmful to the environment.

The natural colors used today are not without their problems
.
Since they are extracted from plants, trees, and insects, they require a lot of space and natural resources to meet market demand
.
In addition, the number of shades of color found in nature is limited
.

But there may be a smarter, more sustainable way for us humans to get all-encompassing colors
.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, assistant professor Elizabeth H.
J.
Nelson, and doctoral student Annette Munch Nelson have begun investigating the problem
with Danish company Octarine Bio.

"If we can mimic the way nature makes color, rather than using crude oil or developing large tracts of land, we can pave the way
for a more sustainable color industry.
" This is our goal
.
We want to develop biopigments in a new way – that is, transferring colors produced in nature to yeast tanks," said Elizabeth H.
J.
Nelson of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences

They mimic nature's plan

Wild plants, bacteria, and other organisms produce a large number of compounds, including those that produce certain colors
.
In nature, this process usually proceeds rather slowly
.
To speed up this process, the idea was to transfer the production of compounds to
another type of organism.

"We can mimic nature
by introducing certain plant or microbial enzymes into yeast.
Yeast will act as the host organism to form these compounds
.
With yeast as a host, we can produce this chemical more efficiently and therefore in larger quantities than in plants," explains
Elizabeth H.
J.
Nelson.

Another advantage is the ease of growing yeast
on a large scale.

"Instead of planting a few hectares of trees
, we can simply put the yeast into a large fermenter.
Here, the yeast produces substances, which are then easily extracted
.
Nick Milne, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Octarine Bio, Denmark's leading synthetic biology platform company, said: "We knew it was effective, and the challenge was to get biological processes to work efficiently enough to scale up production
.
"

We are missing purple, pink and blue

The second phase of the project is to control the biosynthesis process in order to produce new compounds to form new shades of color
.

Although nature is full of reds, yellows, and greens, many of the colors we use in our everyday products are rare
.
This is especially true
for shades of purple, pink, and blue.

"The market gap for natural pigments is large
.
So, the specific question we want to solve is: how do we create colors that are natural, but in a sustainable way, which also fits the color spectrum
that is not easily found in nature.
The compounds we will study meet all three criteria and can be easily integrated into
our existing tryptamine fermentation manufacturing process.
Milne said
.

Versatile colors

The ultimate goal is not just to make pigments, but to produce so-called biologically active colors – colors
with multiple functions.
The project draws compounds extracted from nature from tryptamine substances
.
In addition to their ability to produce color, these compounds have a range of other properties
.
In addition, they have antibacterial, antiviral effects, and even anti-cancer
.

"Nature builds a lot of intelligent functions
into the compounds on which these organisms depend.
If our project succeeds, humans will be able to take advantage of these equally useful properties," said Elizabeth H.
J.
Neilson, whose research expertise is in understanding exactly how these substances are produced and why they work the way they do
.

Nick Milne added:

"For example, imagine a sportswear that is dyed in an environmentally friendly way and is also antibacterial
.
However, there are also abundant commercial applications
in the pharmaceutical and food fields.
”

The project will last three years and will be funded
by the Danish Innovation Fund's Doctor of Industry.