Sophorolipids characteristics, production, and applications

Abstract

Biosurfactants or surface active biopolymers display a specific range of structures and have been well known for their ability to cause emulsification. Based on their chemical composition, microbe-originated biosurfactants have been broadly grouped into glycolipids, lipopeptides, lipoproteins, phospholipids, fatty acids (hydroxylated and crossed-linked), polymeric surfactants, and particulate surfactants. The glycolipids (e.g., trehalose lipids, rhamnolipids, sophorolipids, mannosylerythritol lipids, lipopeptides, surfactin, iturin, fengycin, lichenysin, emulsan, biodispersan, and liposan) have been one of the prior choices for the researcher for exploring the biosurfactants. Among all, rhamnolipids and sophorolipids are two most explored and commercialized sophorolipids. Here, we are going to focus on some fundamentals and applications of sophorolipids. Gorin et al. (1961) described about sophorolipid for the first time in 1961. After that, numerous manuscripts have been published. Like other surfactants, they also facilitated the uptake of hydrophobic substrates such as triglycerides or alkanes by the microorganisms.