ABSTRACT
Surfactants are broadly used for industrial, agricultural, food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical application, however, most of these compounds have been chemically synthesized. These chemical based surfactants are doubtlessly causing environmental and toxicological hassle through its recalcitrant property. With cutting-edge advances in biotechnology, interest has been paid to the opportunity of an environmentally friendly process. Here comes the role of biosurfactants. Biosurfactants are a better replacement for surfactants due to their biodegradability and lower toxicity. It is synthesized extracellular by various microorganisms like bacteria, yeast etc., which can reduce surface tension. Biosurfactants are amphiphilic compounds produced in living surfaces, mostly on microbial cell surfaces, thus reducing surface and interfacial tension at the surface and interface, respectively. Biosurfactants are mainly classified consistent with their chemical structure and their microbial origin. There are different types of biosurfactant produced by different organisms. Globally, the production of surfactants has increased to 17 million metric tons. Due to this increasing awareness on the necessity to guard the ecosystem, environmental scientists are tightening environment regulations, thus necessitating an increased interest in surfactants of microbial origin as possible alternatives to chemically synthesized ones. The power to tailor the biosurfactants produced to the precise needs of the merchandise formulation are going to be a crucial future step. Biosurfactants have several applications in agriculture, medicine, the petroleum industry, the food-processing industry, the cosmetic industry, and microbial enhanced oil recovery.
