ABSTRACT
Surfactants are substances consisting of a water-loving head unit and a water-repelling tail part. Surfactants are majorly synthesized from petroleum sources and are widely used in a range of different medicines, cosmetics, house cleaning chemicals etc. Over the years, the increasing demand for surfactants all over the world has increased leaps and bounds.
Excessive use of surfactants is found to have significant effects on human health and the environment. After getting disposed of into aquatic bodies, a large proportion of surfactants get degraded in waste water treatment plants (WWTP) and the rest ends up in surface waters, soil or sediment. Surfactants present in water bodies cause toxicity in aquatic vertebrates, invertebrates, bacteria, aquatic and terrestrial plants. In the environment, surfactants are primarily biodegraded in sewage treatment plants and through microbial activity under aerobic conditions.
The large demand for surfactants and the necessity for biodegradation after their use thus piqued an interest in alternative surfactants which are renewable and biodegradable as they would be friendly towards the environment. The search for surfactants which are friendly to the environment has directed research towards biodegradable surfactants from renewable sources with low toxicity and improved performances. This work deals with environmental hazards of surfactants and is suggestive of alternative synthesis of renewable, eco-friendly and biodegradable natural surfactants from amino acids, sugars and tannic acid. The diverse applications of renewable surfactants in the fields of biochemistry and biomedicine are also explored.
