Brown sugar raw sugarcane juice, and enzymatic hydrolyzates fr-om amilaceous or ligno(hemi)cellulosic sources like cane bagasse turned out to be a minimal but satisfactory culture medium for the production of astaxanthin in Phaffia rhodozyma The condition for this was a small supplementation (1 g/l) of a nitrogen source. Urea resulted in a preferential yeast biomass increase as compared to soya meal and tannery shavings, the major beneficial effect of which was in the pigment content of the yeast cells. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.