Production and Quantitative Analysis of Trehalose Lipid Biosurfactants Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Advances in the production of biosurfactants as green ingredients in home and personal care products

Home and personal care industry is currently witnessing a growing demand for sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives to synthetic surfactants. This increase is fueled by concerns over the delayed degradation and environmental impact of the latter. To this, biosurfactants possess important properties such as biodegradability, low toxicity, and renewable sourcing. These qualities position them as compelling replacements of traditional synthetic surfactants. Their diverse attributes including emulsification, antimicrobial efficacy, surface tension reduction, and foaming capability, make them well-suited choices for home and personal care products. Biosurfactants can be produced through several inexpensive and renewable sources which contributes to their commercialization potential. This article discusses various microbial derived biosurfactants including rhamnolipids, sophorolipids, mannosyl-erythritol lipids, trehalolipids and lipopeptides, unraveling and comparing their distinctive roles and advantages in the home and personal care industry. It also focuses on the recent patent innovations in the production of biosurfactants which have aimed at improving their economic viability and performance attributes. Finally, the article sheds light on the challenges and future trajectories for better integration of these sustainable biosurfactants into mainstream consumer products.

Sustainable biosurfactant production from secondary feedstock-recent advances, process optimization and perspectives

Biosurfactants have garnered increased attention lately due to their superiority of their properties over fossil-derived counterparts. While the cost of production remains a significant hurdle to surpass synthetic surfactants, biosurfactants have been anticipated to gain a larger market share in the coming decades. Among these, glycolipids, a type of low-molecular-weight biosurfactant, stand out for their efficacy in reducing surface and interfacial tension, which made them highly sought-after for various surfactant-related applications. Glycolipids are composed of hydrophilic carbohydrate moieties linked to hydrophobic fatty acid chains through ester bonds that mainly include rhamnolipids, trehalose lipids, sophorolipids, and mannosylerythritol lipids. This review highlights the current landscape of glycolipids and covers specific glycolipid productivity and the diverse range of products found in the global market. Applications such as bioremediation, food processing, petroleum refining, biomedical uses, and increasing agriculture output have been discussed. Additionally, the latest advancements in production cost reduction for glycolipid and the challenges of utilizing second-generation feedstocks for sustainable production are also thoroughly examined. Overall, this review proposes a balance between environmental advantages, economic viability, and societal benefits through the optimized integration of secondary feedstocks in biosurfactant production.

An insight into the utilization of microbial biosurfactants pertaining to their industrial applications in the food sector

Microbial biosurfactants surpass synthetic alternatives due to their biodegradability, minimal toxicity, selective properties, and efficacy across a wide range of environmental conditions. Owing to their remarkable advantages, biosurfactants employability as effective emulsifiers and stabilizers, antimicrobial and antioxidant attributes, rendering them for integration into food preservation, processing, formulations, and packaging. The biosurfactants can also be derived from various types of food wastes. Biosurfactants are harnessed across multiple sectors within the food industry, ranging from condiments (mayonnaise) to baked goods (bread, muffins, loaves, cookies, and dough), and extending into the dairy industry (cheese, yogurt, and fermented milk). Additionally, their impact reaches the beverage industry, poultry feed, seafood products like tuna, as well as meat processing and instant foods, collectively redefining each sector's landscape. This review thoroughly explores the multifaceted utilization of biosurfactants within the food industry as emulsifiers, antimicrobial, antiadhesive, antibiofilm agents, shelf-life enhancers, texture modifiers, and foaming agents.

Sustainable trehalose lipid production by Rhodotorula sp.: a promising bio-based alternative

Global environmental concerns drive research toward the development of new eco-friendly compounds to replace pollutant chemicals. This study focuses on optimizing the production of trehalose lipids (TLs), which are glycolipid biosurfactants (BS) with various applications like antimicrobial or surface tension reduction. New microorganism sources, growth conditions, medium composition, purification conditions, and physicochemical properties of TLs are studied. Addressing a microscale approach, TLs production was successfully achieved using Rhodotorula sp. and Rhodococcus erythropolis to compare, with different media compositions including glucose-based and salt media supplemented with glycerol, glucose, n-hexadecane, n-dodecane. Liquid-liquid extraction using ethyl acetate and methanol was employed for compound extraction, followed by characterization using analytical methods such as Thin layer chromatography (TLC), High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and UHPLC. The produced TLs exhibited a minimum surface tension of 47 mN/m and a critical micellar concentration of 4.4 mg/mL. This study also identified Rhodotorula sp. as a new sustainable producer of TLs with improved productivity.

Sustainable production of biosurfactants via valorisation of industrial wastes as alternate feedstocks

Globally, the rapid increase in the human population has given rise to a variety of industries, which have produced a variety of wastes. Due to their detrimental effects on both human and environmental health, pollutants from industry have taken centre stage among the various types of waste produced. The amount of waste produced has therefore increased the demand for effective waste management. In order to create valuable chemicals for sustainable waste management, trash must be viewed as valuable addition. One of the most environmentally beneficial and sustainable choices is to use garbage to make biosurfactants. The utilization of waste in the production of biosurfactant provides lower processing costs, higher availability of feedstock and environmental friendly product along with its characteristics. The current review focuses on the use of industrial wastes in the creation of sustainable biosurfactants and discusses how biosurfactants are categorized. Waste generation in the fruit industry, agro-based industries, as well as sugar-industry and dairy-based industries is documented. Each waste and wastewater are listed along with its benefits and drawbacks. This review places a strong emphasis on waste management, which has important implications for the bioeconomy. It also offers the most recent scientific literature on industrial waste, including information on the role of renewable feedstock for the production of biosurfactants, as well as the difficulties and unmet research needs in this area.

Bio-based rhamnolipids production and recovery from waste streams: Status and perspectives

Bio-based rhamnolipid production from waste streams is gaining momentum nowadays because of increasing market demand, huge range of applications and its economic and environment friendly nature. Rhamnolipid type biosurfactants are produced by microorganisms as secondary metabolites and have been used to reduce surface/interfacial tension between two different phases. Biosurfactants have been reported to be used as an alternative to chemical surfactants. Pseudomonas sp. has been frequently used for production of rhamnolipid. Various wastes can be used in production of rhamnolipid. Rhamnolipids are widely used in various industrial applications. The present review provides information about structure and nature of rhamnolipid, production using different waste materials and scale-up of rhamnolipid production. It also provides comprehensive literature on various industrial applications along with perspectives and challenges in this research area.

Two Homologous Enzymes of the GalU Family in Rhodococcus opacus 1CP-RoGalU1 and RoGalU2

Uridine-5’-diphosphate (UDP)-glucose is reported as one of the most versatile building blocks within the metabolism of pro- and eukaryotes. The activated sugar moiety is formed by the enzyme UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (GalU). Two homologous enzymes (designated as RoGalU1 and RoGalU2) are encoded by most Rhodococcus strains, known for their capability to degrade numerous compounds, but also to synthesize natural products such as trehalose comprising biosurfactants. To evaluate their functionality respective genes of a trehalose biosurfactant producing model organism—Rhodococcus opacus 1CP—were cloned and expressed, proteins produced (yield up to 47 mg per L broth) and initially biochemically characterized. In the case of RoGalU2, the V_max was determined to be 177 U mg⁻¹ (uridine-5’-triphosphate (UTP)) and K_m to be 0.51 mM (UTP), respectively. Like other GalUs this enzyme seems to be rather specific for the substrates UTP and glucose 1-phosphate, as it accepts only dTTP and galactose 1-phoshate in addition, but both with solely 2% residual activity. In comparison to other bacterial GalU enzymes the RoGalU2 was found to be somewhat higher in activity (factor 1.8) even at elevated temperatures. However, RoGalU1 was not obtained in an active form thus it remains enigmatic if this enzyme participates in metabolism.

Enhanced crude oil depletion by constructed bacterial consortium comprising bioemulsifier producer and petroleum hydrocarbon degraders

The aim of this work was to study the production of bioemulsifier by Rhodococcus erythropolis OSDS1, and the improvement of crude oil depletion efficiency using a consortium of petroleum hydrocarbon degraders and OSDS1. The results showed that R. erythropolis OSDS1 produced highly stable bioemulsifier under various salinity (0-35 g/L NaCl) and pH (5.0-9.0) conditions; more than 90% of the initial emulsification activity was retained after 168 h. Emulsification capacity of the bioemulsifier on different petroleum hydrocarbons was diesel > mineral oil/crude oil > gasoline. A mixed bacterial consortium combining OSDS1 and four other petroleum hydrocarbon degraders was constructed. GC-MS results revealed that the constructed consortium achieved 85.26% depletion efficiency of crude oil in 15 days, which was significantly higher than that of individual strains. During the process, alkane hydroxylase gene (alkB) was successfully amplified from the consortium, confirming presence of crude oil degrading enzymes.

Preservative and Irritant Capacity of Biosurfactants From Different Sources: A Comparative Study

One of the most important challenges for pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries is solubilization and preservation of their active ingredients. Therefore, most of these formulations contain irritant chemical additives to improve their shelf-life and the solubility of hydrophobic ingredients. An interesting alternative to chemical surfactants and preservatives is the use of biosurfactants; thus, their surfactant properties and composition make them more biocompatible than their chemical counterparts. Moreover, some biosurfactants have shown antimicrobial activity in addition to their detergent capacity. In this work, the antimicrobial and irritant effect of 2 biosurfactant extracts was studied: one produced in a controlled fermentation process with Lactobacillus pentosus and the other produced from corn stream by spontaneous fermentation. The results showed a strong antimicrobial activity of the biosurfactant extract obtained from corn stream on pathogenic bacteria, in comparison with the L. pentosus biosurfactant extract. Moreover, both biosurfactants did not produce any irritant effect on the chorioallantoic membrane of hen's egg assay contrary to sodium dodecyl sulfate. This is the first study dealing with the application of biosurfactant extracts on sensitive biological membranes, and this is the first time that the preservative capacity of a biosurfactant extract obtained in spontaneous fermentation is being evaluated, achieving promising results.