Six fungal elicitors prepared from Rhodotorula rubra, Rhodotorula glutinis, Panus conchatus, Coriolus versicolor, Mucor mucedo, Mortieralla alpina M-23 were examined to determine their effects on the growth, total carotenoids and astaxanthin formation by Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous. The results showed that different fungal elicitor could cause diversely stimulating effects. Among the fungal elicitors tested, the M. mucedo elicitor concentration of 30 mg1(-1) promoted the biomass and total carotenoids yield most remarkably, resulting in 69.81 +/- 6.00% and 78.87 +/- 4.15% higher than the control, respectively. At the concentration of 30 mg1(-1), R. glutinis elicitor stimulated the highest astaxanthin yield with a 90.6 +/- 5.98% increase compared to the control. The R. rubra elicitor concentration of 30 mg1(-1) resulted in the optimal total carotenoids and astaxanthin content to be 42.24 +/- 0.49% and 69.02 +/- 0.72% higher than the control, respectively. At the concentration of 30 mg1(-1), R. rubra elicitor gave the highest increase in the ratio of astaxanthin in total carotenoids by 18.85 +/- 0.11% of the control. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.