Biosurfactants are amphiphilic compounds produced in living surfaces, mostly on microbial cell surfaces or excreted extracellular hydrophobic

and hydrophilic moieties that confer the ability to accumulate between fluid phases, thus reducing surface and interfacial tension at the surface
and interface respectively. They possess the characteristic property of reducing the surface and interfacial tension using the same mechanisms as
chemicals surfactants
Surfactants are the active ingredients found in soaps and detergents with the ability to concentrate at the air- water interface and are commonly
used to separate oily materials from a particular media due to the fact that they are able to increase aqueous solubility of Non- Aqueous Phase
Liquids (NAPLS) by reducing their surface/ interfacial tension at airwater and wateroil interfaces.
Biosurfactants are mainly classified according to their chemical structure and their microbial origin. The main classes of biosurfactants are
glycolipids, phospholipids, polymeric biosurfactants and lipopeptides (surfactin). The best known glycolipids are rhamnolipids, sophorolipids
and trehalolipids
Surfactants are widely used for industrial, agricultural, food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical application however most of these compounds are
synthesized chemically and potentially cause environmental and toxicology problem due to the recalcitrant and persistent nature of these
substances. With current advances in biotechnology, attention has been paid to the alternative environmental friendly process for production of
different types of biosurfactants from microorganisms.

Advantages of biosurfactants
Biosurfactants have many advantages when compared to their chemically synthesized counterparts, some of these are:
Biodegradability: Biological surfactants are easily degraded by microorganism.
Low toxicity: Biosurfactant demonstrate higher toxicity than the chemical-derived surfactants. It was also reported that biosurfactants showed
higher EC 50 (effective concentration to decrease 50% of test population) values than synthetic dispersants.
Availability of raw materials: Biosurfactants can be produced from very cheap raw materials which are available in large quantities. The
carbon source may come from hydrocarbons, carbohydrates and /or lipids, which may be used separately or in combination with each other.
Physical factors: Many biosurfactants are not affected by environmental factors such as temperature, pH and ionic strength tolerances.
Lichenysin produced by Bacillus licheniformis strain was not affected by temperature ranges of up to 50C, a pH range of 4-5- 9.0, and NaCl
concentration of 50g/l and Ca concentration of 25g/l.
Surface and interface activity: Mulligan [10] stated that a good surfactant can lower surface tension of water from 75 to 35mN/m and the
interfacial tension water/hexadecane from 40 to 1mN/M. Surfactin possess the ability to reduce the surface tension of water to 25m N/M and the
interfacial tension of water/hexadecane to < 1mN/M.
Other advantages: Kosaric are biocompatibility and digestibility which allows their application in cosmetic, pharmaceuticals and as functional
food additives.
Application of biosurfactants
Microbial surfactants are more effective and versatile than many synthetic surfactants owing to their selective action, biodegradable nature and
stability at high temperature. There are numerous applications of bio-surfactant as paralleled to their chemically synthesised counterparts: are as
follows:
In food industry: It is used as food additives. Lecithin and its derivatives, fatty acid ester containing glycerol, sorbitol and ethyoxylate etc. are
now days used as emulsifier in food industries.
Health care and cosmetic industries: an appropriate combination of sophorolipids and propylene glycol has remarkable skin compatibility and
used commercially as moisturizer. A numerous compounds are prepared by enzymatic alteration of hydrophobic molecules by lipase and whole
cell for cosmetic application.
Medical industries: bio-surfactant is very useful for the treatment of many infectious diseases such as the succinoyltrehalose lipid of
Rhodococcus erythropolis has been reported to inhibit Herpes simplex virus and Influenza virus. 1% emulsion of rhamnolipids is used for the
treatment of leaves of Nicotiana infected with TMV and to control Potato virus-x disease.
As environment pollution control: it can be efficiently used in handling industrial emulsion, control of oil spill, biodegradation and
detoxification of industrial effluents and bioremediation of contaminated soil.
Economic production: Depending on the application, biosurfactants can also be produced from industrial wastes and by-products (example for
use of petroleum related technology). Other potential area where it is useful is pulp & paper, coal, textile and uranium ore processing
industries.