Ecofriendly Approach for Steroids, Terpenes, and Alkaloids-based Biosurfactant

Abstract

In the last decade, the investigation of biosurfactants (BS) has been extensively studied due to the application of BS to remove or minimize the use of toxic synthetic surfactants into the ecosystem. Contaminated soil, air, and water cause a serious hazard to human health and the environment. Usually, biosurfactants exhibited remarkable emulsification with minimum surface tension values less than 16.5 dynes/cm. The BS exhibited significant bioactivities against bacterial and fungal pathogens. The plantbased surfactants have a more than 80% free radical scavenging nature and show potential antioxidant activity. BS are amphiphilic motifs obtained from plants and microorganisms' extract. BS has distinct hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties, leading to micellization formation. BS has a special molecular structure with hydrophilic glycoside linkage and lipophilic (Hydrophobic) triterpene derivative. BS has a broad spectrum of numerous sectors, including food, agriculture, personal care, petroleum, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, textile. The features of BS are low toxicity, environmental capability, biodegradability, multi-functionality, and availability of resources. The biosurfactant is today's need of society because synthetic surfactants have high toxicity and high ecological impact due to carcinogenic and mutagenic effects on human health. The proteins and polysaccharides act as emulsifiers. The chemical composition of this kind of surfactant is protein, glycolipid, carbohydrates, steroids, terpenoids. We focused on the steroids, terpenes, and alkaloids based surfactants. Currently employed plant and microbes-based surfactants, study their production, chemical composition, and effect of synthetic biosurfactant on human health and ecosystem.