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Microbial Biosurfactants and Their Potential Applications: An Overview

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Microbial Biosurfactants

Part of the book series: Environmental and Microbial Biotechnology ((EMB))

Abstract

Biosurfactants are amphiphilic and one of the most versatile compounds synthesized by certain plants and microorganisms. These compounds are well known for their wide range of applications from domestic, personal, food and medical up to industrial level. They are capable of emulsifying oily substances which makes them very useful as a cleaning agent for domestic or industrial purpose and at the same time makes it competent for the exploration of oil through microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) process. Besides they have a major application in the form of a potential tool to fight against petroleum-based contamination of oil and water. They are also used as an anti-adhesive agent, emulsifying agent in bakery industry, drug delivery system, etc. They are synthesized by a number of microorganisms such as Pseudomonas sp., Bacillus sp., Acinetobacter sp., Candida sp., Sphingomonas sp., Cryptococcus sp., Pseudozyma sp., Kurtzmanomyces sp., Rhodococcus sp., Arthrobacter sp., Lactococcus sp., Penicillium sp., Aspergillus sp., etc. and are encoded by a number of genes. In this regard, this chapter focus on basic chemical properties of various types of biosurfactants, source of production, name of genes responsible for its production, and various applications.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Anu Chaubey and Abhijit Sonowal contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Assam Royal Global University, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Debajit Borah, Anu Chaubey, Abhijit Sonowal, Bhaskarjyoti Gogoi & Rupesh Kumar

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  1. Debajit Borah
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  2. Anu Chaubey
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  3. Abhijit Sonowal
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  4. Bhaskarjyoti Gogoi
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  5. Rupesh Kumar
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Chemistry, Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Inamuddin

  2. Department of Chemistry, Facualty of Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Mohd Imran Ahamed

  3. Department of Botany, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Motihari, Bihar, India

    Ram Prasad

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Borah, D., Chaubey, A., Sonowal, A., Gogoi, B., Kumar, R. (2021). Microbial Biosurfactants and Their Potential Applications: An Overview. In: Inamuddin, Ahamed, M.I., Prasad, R. (eds) Microbial Biosurfactants. Environmental and Microbial Biotechnology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6607-3_5

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