A review on natural surfactants

Natural surfactants, also known as bio surfactants, are exogenous amphiphilic biological chemicals generated by a range of microorganisms from a number of sources, including waste products. Because of their unique characteristics, including such low toxicity, functioning under severe circumstances, based on renewable chemicals, and biologically degradable nature, there's always growing interest in this subject. Since of relatively low toxicity, biodegradability, and relative stability in a variety of physicochemical conditions, they are referred to as "ecofriendly." Despite having a wider range of structures and superior physicochemical characteristics than chemical solvents, bio surfactants cannot compete with comparable synthetic counterparts due to high upstream and downstream costs. Low productivity, costly downstream processing, as well as a lack of adequate knowledge of the bioreactor technologies for their synthesis limit the commercialization of these environmentally beneficial biomolecules. However, we anticipate that in the future, improved reactor design and material recycling technologies will be developed, as well as the screening of overproducer microbial strains. The current study focuses on bio surfactants in general, including their characteristics, benefits and drawbacks, manufacturing, characterization, and use, as well as recommendations for future research.