An Overview of Pigmented Bioactive Products from the Genus Cordyceps

The demand for natural colorants in the food, textile, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and other industries has increased due to the adoption of environmentally friendly alternatives to non-sustainable resources. Microorganisms are preferred over other biological resources because of their high stability, water solubility, year-round availability, and cost-effectiveness. Fungi are prolific producers of a myriad of pigments with therapeutic benefits. The genus Cordyceps is entomopathogenic and an important therapeutic agent in traditional Chinese medicine, known for its antiaging, anticancer, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, antimutagenic, and antioxidant metabolites. It is known to produce a diverse range of pigmented metabolites, such as cordycepene, cordycepoid, naphthoquinones, carotenoids, and others as a defense mechanism. The recent onset of biotechnological interventions has increased interest in the genus for augmented metabolite production. The biosynthetic pathways of these pigmented bioactives have been systematically explored for biotransformation into cell factories via metabolic engineering and comparative omics analysis. The current chapter focuses on Cordyceps pigments with significant bioactivities and the various interventions utilized to enhance their production, followed by future avenues opened through them.