Screening of Serratia marcescens isolated from soil for secondary metabolites of therapeutic importance

Microorganisms are known to produce pigments. The pigments produced by bacteria have received the attention of many investigators. Soil isolates obtained in our campus produced a pink to red color pigment when grown on nutrient agar. This isolate was identified as Serratia m arcescens by MALDI – TOF mass spectrophotometer. The pigment was extracted and identified to be Prodigiosin. GC-MS analysis of the methanol fraction of the culture filtrate of Serratia sp reveals the production of various alkaloids of therapeutic importance. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report on the production of these compounds by Serratia m arcescens.