BIOSURFACTANTS AND PEPFACTANTS

1. Introduction
The term surfactant stands for surface active agent. Conventionally
surfactants are amphiphilic compounds containing a hydrophilic head
and a hydrophobic tail, the two groups which in pure form are insoluble
in each other.sufactants lower surface tension and provide wetting,
emulsification, foam and detergency. Hence, they are used for the
removal of organic and inorganic contaminants like hydrocarbons and
metals Examples of common surfactants are sodium lauryl sulfate and
sodium stearate (c.f.fig.1). Such surfactants are popularly and
extensively used in soap and detergent industry [1].
1.1 Biosurfactants
Increasing environmental awareness has triggered a growing interest in
biosurfactants- an eco friendly alternative to conventional surfactants
and biosurfactant producing microorganism. Bio surfactants are a
structurally diverse group of surface- active substances that are
amphiphilic in nature [2]
The hydrophilic polar head in this case consists of mono, oligo or
polysaccharide or a peptide/protein and hydrophobic moiety usually
contains a saturated or unsaturated or hydroxylated fatty acid or fatty
alcohol. Biosurfactants increase the surface area of hydrophobic water
insoluble substances. Analogous to conventional surfactants they are
excellent emulsifiers, foaming and dispersing agents however, in
comparison to conventional surfactants they have many advantages.
They are environment friendly biodegradable, less toxic and non
hazardous. They have better foaming properties and higher selectivity.
[3]. They are active at extreme temperatures, pH [4] and salinity as well.
They can be produced from industrial wastes and from by- products.
[5].

1.1.1 Classifaction of biosurfactants

Biosurfactants can be broadly classified into 4 groups: Glycolipids,
Fatty acids, phospholipids and neutral lipids, lipopeptides and
polymeric biosurfactants. Biosource of each class and their respective
application in biotechnology are presented in table 1.

1.1.2 Mode of action of biosurfactants

Similar to ordinary surfactants, biosurfactants accumulate at the
interface of two immiscible liquids or between a fluid and a solid.
They act by reducing surface (liquid-air) and interfacial (liquid-liquid)
tension and thus reducing repulsive forces between two dissimilar
phases to allow them to mix and interact more easily.This
biosurfactant property largely depends on the concentration and
temperature. Above a particular concentration called the critical
micelle concentration (CMC) and a particular temperature called the
kraft temperature biosurfactant molecules associate to form micelles,
bilayers and vesicles. Efficient biosurfactants have low CMC so that
less amount is required to lower surface tension. Mode of action of a
biosurfactant is shown in fig.2
In the bulk aqueous phase self aggregation of bio surfactants forms
different shapes spherical, cylindrical or bilayers depending on the
chemical structure of the surfactant and the balance of the sizes of
hydrophobic tail and hydrophilic head known as hydrophilic
Some examples of self aggregation of biosurfactants are shown in
fig .3. These self aggregated structures with hydrophobic case help
incorporation of hydrophobic organic molecules into themselves thus
solubilizing hydrophobic oil, grease or dirt.

1.2

Pepfactants
In the above section biosurfactants have been discussed as an
alternative to conventional surfactants mainly due to their ecofriendly
nature. Microbial lipopeptides were also proposed for industrial
applications as bioremediation and oil recovery, but they cannot be
genetically engineered. A similar class of synthetic molecules are
peptide amphiphiles in which a peptide forms the polar head group
which is combined with a peptide or non-peptide hydrophobic tail self
assemblage properties of these peptide amphiphiles have been studied
in bulk solution. These designed peptide surfactants also known as
pepfactants, which are amphiphilic molecules self assemble at fluid
interfaces to give ?.....
A change in bulk solution condition can trigger loss of interfacial
film leading to collapse of foam and emulsion. Pepfactants have the
advantage of being genetically engineered and bioproduced using
standard methods. Pepfactants have the potential of being
commercially and industrially used in near future. For instance, soap
industry uses certain enzymes in small quantities as stain cutter for
digesting proteins in food stains. The active site motif of these
enzymes may be incorporated in the peptide head group of pepfactant
for dual benefit avoiding use of such additives. These compounds
have many more application applications in environmental science
and biomedical science.

2.

Objectives of present study

This study will focus on structure and mode of action of pepfactants
and their comparison with other biosurfactants. In particular the
study will focus on self aggregation property of these compounds at
liquid-liquid interface and how they lower interfacial tension.
Previous experimental studies have focused on properties in bulk

1.

2.
3.
4.

water as opposed to properties at liquid-liquid interface. Specific

objectives are as follows;
Complete optimized conformations of some known biosurfactants
like surfactin iturin etc. will be studied. Optimized conformations of
some cyclic amphiphilic of peptides will also be studied.
Thermodynamics of self aggregated of these compounds will be
studied utilizing ab inited inter molecular interaction calculations.
Behavior of these compounds at liquid-liquid interface will be
studied by dynamics simulation studies at physiological conditions.
Measurement of interfacial tension lowering by some amphiphilic
cyclic peptide using stalagmometer.