Biosurfactants for a Sustainable Future

Production and Applications in the Environment and Biomedicine

Hemen Sarma, Majeti Narasimha Vara Prasad, Hemen Sarma, Majeti Narasimha Vara Prasad

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781119671008
• eBook ISBN: 9781119671053
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Management
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Biosurfactants for a Sustainable Future

Explore the state-of-the-art in biosurfactant technology and its applications in environmental remediation, biomedicine, and biotechnology

Biosurfactants for a Sustainable Future explores recent developments in biosurfactants and their use in a variety of cutting-edge applications. The book opens a window on the rapid development of microbiology by explaining how microbes and their products are used in advanced medical technology and in the sustainable remediation of emerging environmental contaminants.

The book emphasizes the different techniques that are used for the production of biosurfactants from microorganisms and their characterization. Various aspects of biosurfactants, including structural characteristics, developments, production, bio-economics and their sustainable use in the environment and biomedicine, are addressed, and the book also presents metagenomic strategies to facilitate the discovery of novel biosurfactants producing microorganisms. Readers will benefit from the inclusion of:

• A thorough introduction to the state-of-the-art in biosurfactant technology, techniques, and applications
• An exploration of biosurfactant enhanced remediation of sediments contaminated with organics and inorganics
• A discussion of perspectives for biomedical and biotechnological applications of biosurfactants
• A review of the antiviral, antimicrobial, and antibiofilm potential of biosurfactants against multi-drug-resistant pathogens.
• An examination of biosurfactant-inspired control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Perfect for academic researchers and scientists working in the petrochemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, and in the agroindustry, Biosurfactants for a Sustainable Future will also earn a place in the libraries of scientists working in environmental biotechnology, environmental science, and biomedical engineering.

1
Introduction to Biosurfactants

José Vázquez Tato¹, Julio A. Seijas², M. Pilar Vázquez‐Tato², Francisco Meijide¹, Santiago de Frutos¹, Aida Jover¹, Francisco Fraga³, and Victor H. Soto⁴

¹ Departamento de Química Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Avda, Lugo, Spain

² Departamento de Química Orgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Avda, Lugo, Spain

³ Departamento de Física Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Avda, Lugo, Spain

⁴ Escuela de Química, Centro de Investigación en Electroquímica y Energía Química (CELEQ), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

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CHAPTER MENU

1. 1.1 Introduction and Historical Perspective
2. 1.2 Micelle Formation
3. 1.3 Average Aggregation Numbers
4. 1.4 Packing Properties of Amphiphiles
5. 1.5 Biosurfactants
6. 1.6 Sophorolipids
7. 1.7 Surfactin
8. 1.8 Final Comments
9. Acknowledgement
10. References

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1.1 Introduction and Historical Perspective

Surface tension is a property that involves the common frontier (boundary surface) between two media or phases. Strictly speaking, the surface tension of a liquid should mean the surface tension of the liquid in contact and equilibrium with its own vapor. However, as the gas phase has normally a small influence on the surface, the term is generally applied to the liquid–air boundary. The phases can also be two liquids (interfacial tension) or a liquid and solid. According to IUPAC, the surface tension is the work required to increase a surface area divided by that area [1]. This is the reversible work required to carry the molecules or ions from the bulk phase into the surface implying its enlargement and corresponds to the increase in Gibbs free energy (G) of the system per unit surface area (A),

(1.1)

where γ is the interfacial tension. Therefore, the units of γ are J/m² or N/m, but it is normally recorded in mN/m (because it coincides with the value in dyn/cm of the cgs system). In 1944, Taylor and Alexander [2] collected some representative published (1885–1939) values for the surface tension of water at 20 °C. Their own value was 72.70 ± 0.07 mN/m (calculated by extrapolation) in agreement with more recent determinations, the accepted value being 71.99 ± 0.36 mN/m at 25 °C [3]. This is a rather high value when it is compared with those of other common solvents as ethanol (22.39 ± 0.06 mN/m), acetic acid (27.59 ± 0.09 mN/m), or acetone (29.26 ± 0.05 mN/m) (values from [4]) at 20 °C.

The decrease in the surface tension of water has been traditionally achieved by using soaps or soap‐like compounds. According to IUPAC a “soap is a salt of a fatty acid, saturated or unsaturated, containing at least eight carbon atoms or a mixture of such salts. A neat soap is a lamellar structure containing much (e.g. 75%) soap and little (e.g. 25%) water. Soaps have the property of reducing the surface tension of water when they are dissolved in soap‐like compounds in water.” This reduction facilitates personal care, washing of clothes and other fabrics, etc. The early documents with descriptions of soaps and their uses are typically related with medicinal aspects, and nowadays there is almost a specific type of soap for each requirement. Levey [5] has reviewed the early history of “soaps” used in medicine, cleansing, and personal care. For instance, he mentions that “in a prescription of the seventh century BC, soap made from castor oil (source of ricinoleic [12‐hydroxy‐9‐cis‐octadecenoic] acid) and horned alkali is used… as a mouth cleanser, in enemata, and also to wash the head.” However, Levey concludes that a true soap using caustic alkali was probably not produced in antiquity but “evidence has been adduced to indicate that salting out was in use in early Sumerian times.” In his Naturalis Historia, Pliny the Elder [6] refers to soap (sapo) as prodest et sapo, Galliarum hoc inventum rutilandis capillis. fit ex sebo et cinere, optimus fagino et caprino, duobus modis, spissus ac liquidus, uterque apud Germanos maiore in usu viris quam feminis, which may be translated as “There is also soap, an invention of the Gauls for making their hair shiny (or glossy). It is made from suet and ashes, the best from beechwood ash and goat suet, and exists in two forms, thick and liquid, both being used among the Germans, more by men than by women.”

Hunt [7] indicates that centers of soap production by the end of the first millennium were in Marseilles (Fr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Introduction to Biosurfactants
• 2 Metagenomics Approach for Selection of Biosurfactant Producing Bacteria from Oil Contaminated Soil
• 3 Biosurfactant Production Using Bioreactors from Industrial Byproducts
• 4 Biosurfactants for Heavy Metal Remediation and Bioeconomics
• 5 Application of Biosurfactants for Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR)
• 6 Biosurfactant Enhanced Sustainable Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Soil
• 7 Microbial Surfactants are Next‐Generation Biomolecules for Sustainable Remediation of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons
• 8 Biosurfactants for Enhanced Bioavailability of Micronutrients in Soil
• 9 Biosurfactants
• 10 Green Surfactants
• 11 Antiviral, Antimicrobial, and Antibiofilm Properties of Biosurfactants
• 12 Biosurfactant‐Based Antibiofilm Nano Materials
• 13 Biosurfactants from Bacteria and Fungi
• 14 Biosurfactant‐Inspired Control of Methicillin‐Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
• 15 Exploiting the Significance of Biosurfactant for the Treatment of Multidrug‐Resistant Pathogenic Infections
• 16 Biosurfactants Against Drug‐Resistant Human and Plant Pathogens
• 17 Surfactant‐ and Biosurfactant‐Based Therapeutics
• 18 The Potential Use of Biosurfactants in Cosmetics and Dermatological Products
• 19 Cosmeceutical Applications of Biosurfactants
• 20 Biotechnologically Derived Bioactive Molecules for Skin and Hair‐Care Application
• 21 Biosurfactants as Biocontrol Agents Against Mycotoxigenic Fungi
• 22 Biosurfactant‐Mediated Biocontrol of Pathogenic Microbes of Crop Plants
• Index
• End User License Agreement