Year: 1999
Type: article
Abstract: A large variety of microorganisms produce potent surface-active agents, biosurfactants, which vary in their chemical properties and molecular size. While the low molecular weight surfactants are often glycolipids, the high molecular weight surfactants are generally either polyanionic heteropolysaccharides containing covalently-linked hydrophobic side chains or complexes containing both polysaccharides and proteins. The yield of the biosurfactant greatly depends on the nutritional environment of the growing organism, The enormous diversity of biosurfactants makes them an interesting group of materials for application in many areas such as agriculture, public health, food, health care, waste utilization, and environmental pollution control such as in degradation of hydrocarbons present in soil.
Source: CFTRI Institutional Repository
Authors: N. G. Karanth, P. G. Deo, Veena Kumara Adi
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W167226119