Biosurfactants: Current Perspectives in Environmental Remediation

Biosurfactants are diverse group of surface active compounds synthesized by microorganisms. These molecules have gained environmental significance as they are known to increase the degradation of pollutants by increasing their bioavailability with high specificity and low toxicity. They are preferred over their chemical counterparts because they are biodegradable and non- hazardous. Because of these advantages, biosurfactants have also gained importance in other industries like oil, agriculture, paint and pharmaceutics. Despite so much of importance and demand, large scale production of these compounds is not achieved as yet. This review provides the comprehensive overview of the properties, classification and factors limiting the commercialization of biosurfactant.