నైరూప్య

Biosurfactants: A multi-approach tool in problem solving

Oluwabusola O. Fatade

Biosurfactants are surface active biological compounds produced by microorganisms either extracellularly or cell bound. They possess the hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties which give the enablement to reduce surface and interfacial tension of different solutions. The biosurfactants studies began as early as 1960s and their function keeps evolving in recent times. It has proven useful in the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, agricultural, environmental and medical fields. Of noteworthy is the discovery of their use in procuring solution for the current pandemic (Covid-19). However, there are still limitations in the study of biosurfactants which has to do with their large scale production, reduction of bioprocessing cost and discovery of more applications. Different methods such as optimization and mutation have been employed as a way to increase production.