黑色素是一种无定形聚合物，由真菌、细菌、动物和植物等多种生物合成的异质性功能团组成。它被广泛认可为生物学过程中的关键角色，并在保护生物体免受环境应激方面发挥重要作用。最近，黑色素在纳米生物技术、药物传递、有机半导体和生物电子学、环境生物修复、光保护等领域引起了关注。此外，来自微生物群落等天然来源的黑色素还显示出抗菌、抗癌、自由基清除、化妆品和许多其他治疗领域的应用潜力。尽管推出了黑色素的多潜能性特性，但在实际应用方面仍然存在不足之处，这可能与天然黑色素的质量不足和高价格有关。然而，当前的生物过程技术为大规模或工业化生产微生物黑色素铺平了道路，可以帮助替代合成黑色素。因此，本综述强调了黑色素的多种来源，即基于其途径和化学结构的类型，其功能效率、物理属性以及传统和现代提取和表征方法。此外，对其在医学、生物修复和其他相关领域的应用方式进行展望，为黑色素在医学和环境实际应用中的完全利用提供了展望。©2023。作者授予Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany独家许可，Springer Nature的一部分。

Melanin is an amorphous polymer made of heterogeneous functional groups synthesized by diverse organisms including fungi, bacteria, animals, and plants. It was widely acknowledged for its biological processes and its key role in the protection of organisms from environmental stress. Recently, melanin clutches attention in the field of nanobiotechnology, drug delivery, organic semiconductors and bioelectronics, environmental bioremediation, photoprotection, etc., Furthermore, melanin from natural sources like microbial community shows antimicrobial, fighting cancer, radical scavenging, cosmeceuticals, and many therapeutic areas as well. Though the multipotentiality nature of melanin has been put forth, real-world applications still flag fall behind, which might be anticipated to the inadequate and high price essence of natural melanin. However, current bioprocess technologies have paved for the large-scale or industrial production of microbial melanin, which could help in the replacement of synthetic melanin. Thus, this review emphasizes the various sources for melanin, i.e., types-based on its pathways and its chemical structures, functional efficiency, physical properties, and conventional and modern methods of both extraction and characterization. Moreover, an outlook on how it works in the field of medicine, bioremediation, and other related areas provides perspectives on the complete exploitation of melanin in practical applications of medicine and the environment.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.