ABSTRACT
Biosurfactants are produced by the microbes as the compounds of protections under extreme conditions. These compounds are amphipathic in nature and extracellularly secreted on microbial surfaces or living surfaces. Biosurfactants are important molecules with respect to increase detergency, emulsification and stabilization and reduce surface tension. With the variations in structure of Biosurfactants, these molecules are classified glycolipids, lipopeptides, polysaccharides, proteins and lipoproteins, particulate and polymeric, etc. Classifications of biosurfantant can be done, on the basis of their structure and source of origin. Biosurfactants are composed of two ends viz., top and end. Former usually formed by the hydrophilic groups such as amino acid, peptide, mono-, di- or polysaccharide while latter is formed by hydrophobic groups such as saturated, unsaturated, linear, branched or hydroxylated fatty acid. Synthetic surfactants are cheaper than the biosurfactants because of lesser production values. But this surfactant along with benefits also comes with side effects such as higher toxicity and lesser degradation rates. Products and remnants of synthetic surfactant after some years of application become pollutants to applied region. While biosurfactant comes with the better benefits in comparison to synthetic biosurfactants like lower toxicity, ecofriendly, greater rate of biodegradations, also can be active in extreme conditions like higher pH, sality and temperature. A well-known group of biosurfactants are surfactin, fengycin, iturin etc.
