Microbial Surfactants: The Next Generation Multifunctional Biomolecules for Diverse Applications

Abstract

Surfactants are a broad category of tensio-active biomolecules with multifunctional properties applications in diverse industrial sectors and processes. Surfactants are produced synthetically and biologically. The biologically derived surfactants (biosurfactants) are produced from microorganisms with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis Candida albicans and Acinetobacter calcoaceticus as dominant species. Rhamnolipids, sophorolipids, mannosylerithritol lipids, surfactin, and emulsan are well known in terms of their biotechnological applications. Biosurfactants can compete with the synthetic surfactants in terms of performance with established advantages over the synthetic ones including eco-friendliness, biodegradability, low toxicity, and stability over a wide variability of environmental factors. However, at present, the synthetic surfactants are a preferred option in different industrial applications, because of their availability in commercial quantities, unlike the biosurfactants. Usage of synthetic surfactants introduce new species of recalcitrant pollutants to the environment and lead to undesired results where a wrong selection of surfactants is made. Substituting synthetic surfactants with biosurfactants resolves these drawbacks, thus, interest has been intensified in biosurfactant applications in a wide range of industries hitherto considered as experimental fields. This review, therefore, intends to offer an overview of diverse applications where biosurfactants have found useful, with emphases in petroleum biotechnology, environmental remediation and in the agriculture sector. Application of biosurfactant in these settings would lead to industrial growth and environmental sustainability.

Biosurfactant Production by Streptomyces sp. CGS B11 Using Molasses and Spent Yeast Medium

“…Biosurfactants are known to have high activities at extreme levels of temperatures, pH, and salinity (Santos et al 2016), and are capable of emulsifying even at very low concentrations because of its high kinetic stability (Uzoigwe et al 2015;Schultz and Rosado 2020). Due to these advantages, biosurfactants have been used in oil bioremediation studies for formulating a safer, more effective, and stable remediation agent (Silva et al 2014;Karlapudi et al 2018;Effendi et al 2018;Santos et al 2017;Fenibo et al 2019). There is also a rising application of biosurfactants in cosmetics, food-processing, and pharmaceutical industries where emulsions -specifically, nanoemulsions -are used to encapsulate, deliver, and protect food components such as oil-soluble flavors, vitamins, colorants, preservatives, and other bioactive ingredients (Aswathanarayan and Vittal 2019;Liu et al 2019;Azmi et al 2019).…”

Perspective Chapter: Tapping Significance of Microbial Surfactants as a Biopesticide and Synthetic Pesticide Remediator – An Ecofriendly Approach for Maintaining the Environmental Sustainability

“…When these microbes utilize it, they produce significant metabolites. One characteristic that distinguishes biosurfactants is hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB), which regulates the hydrophilic and hydrophobic constituents balance in surface-active substances [70,71]. BS is one such prominent metabolite, when present at amounts above CMC, biosurfactant-produced micelles may enhance the solubility and bioavailability of hydrophobic pesticide compounds by lowering interfacial tension and surface tension [72,73].…”