ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on different applications of biosurfactants in microbial enhanced oil recovery, bioremediation, medicine, food, pharmaceutical and agriculture industries. Biosurfactants can be broadly grouped into two categories namely low and high molecular weight biosurfactants. In many cases, environmental contamination caused by industrial activity is due to accidental or deliberate release of organic and/or inorganic compounds into the environment. Biosurfactants have been explored for their bioremediation potential, and show promise for application to sites impacted by both organic and metal contaminants. Biosurfactants used in agriculture are also referred as green surfactants. Lipopeptide biosurfactants are made up of lipids and peptides. The increasing demand of consumers for use of natural compounds in food in place of chemicals has drawn attention of many towards research in the paddy soil field. Biosurfactants gain importance as they are biodegradable and lower toxic then chemical surfactants.
