Microbial exopolysaccharides: Biosynthesis and potential applications

Abstract

Many bacteria synthesize extracellular polysaccharides (EPSs) with commercially significant physiological and therapeutic activities. Microbial polysaccharides have also been reported to have potential therapeutic applications. Recently, much attention has been devoted to the microbial exopolysaccharides (EPSs) due to their numerous health beneûts.EPSs from lactic acid bacteria are reported to possess antitumor effects, immunostimulatory activity, and the ability to lower blood cholesterol. EPSs also over an alternative class of biothickeners that are widely used in the food and dairy industries and have been proven to provide strong emulsifying activity, which is important in many food formulations. It is also important to understand the mechanism of microbial biosynthesis of EPSs in order to enhance their production by genetic alterations. The potential applications and the mode of microbial biosynthesis of the EPSs have been presented in this article.