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Rhamnolipid Self-Aggregation in Aqueous Media: A Long Journey toward the Definition of Structure–Property Relationships

The need to protect human and environmental health and avoid the widespread use of substances obtained from nonrenewable sources is steering research toward the discovery and development of new molecules characterized by high biocompatibility and biodegradability. Due to their very widespread use, a...

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Autores principales: Esposito, Rodolfo, Speciale, Immacolata, De Castro, Cristina, D’Errico, Gerardino, Russo Krauss, Irene
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10048978/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36982468
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24065395
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author Esposito, Rodolfo
Speciale, Immacolata
De Castro, Cristina
D’Errico, Gerardino
Russo Krauss, Irene
author_facet Esposito, Rodolfo
Speciale, Immacolata
De Castro, Cristina
D’Errico, Gerardino
Russo Krauss, Irene
author_sort Esposito, Rodolfo
collection PubMed
description The need to protect human and environmental health and avoid the widespread use of substances obtained from nonrenewable sources is steering research toward the discovery and development of new molecules characterized by high biocompatibility and biodegradability. Due to their very widespread use, a class of substances for which this need is particularly urgent is that of surfactants. In this respect, an attractive and promising alternative to commonly used synthetic surfactants is represented by so-called biosurfactants, amphiphiles naturally derived from microorganisms. One of the best-known families of biosurfactants is that of rhamnolipids, which are glycolipids with a headgroup formed by one or two rhamnose units. Great scientific and technological effort has been devoted to optimization of their production processes, as well as their physicochemical characterization. However, a conclusive structure–function relationship is far from being defined. In this review, we aim to move a step forward in this direction, by presenting a comprehensive and unified discussion of physicochemical properties of rhamnolipids as a function of solution conditions and rhamnolipid structure. We also discuss still unresolved issues that deserve further investigation in the future, to allow the replacement of conventional surfactants with rhamnolipids.
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spelling pubmed-100489782023-03-29 Rhamnolipid Self-Aggregation in Aqueous Media: A Long Journey toward the Definition of Structure–Property Relationships Esposito, Rodolfo Speciale, Immacolata De Castro, Cristina D’Errico, Gerardino Russo Krauss, Irene Int J Mol Sci Review The need to protect human and environmental health and avoid the widespread use of substances obtained from nonrenewable sources is steering research toward the discovery and development of new molecules characterized by high biocompatibility and biodegradability. Due to their very widespread use, a class of substances for which this need is particularly urgent is that of surfactants. In this respect, an attractive and promising alternative to commonly used synthetic surfactants is represented by so-called biosurfactants, amphiphiles naturally derived from microorganisms. One of the best-known families of biosurfactants is that of rhamnolipids, which are glycolipids with a headgroup formed by one or two rhamnose units. Great scientific and technological effort has been devoted to optimization of their production processes, as well as their physicochemical characterization. However, a conclusive structure–function relationship is far from being defined. In this review, we aim to move a step forward in this direction, by presenting a comprehensive and unified discussion of physicochemical properties of rhamnolipids as a function of solution conditions and rhamnolipid structure. We also discuss still unresolved issues that deserve further investigation in the future, to allow the replacement of conventional surfactants with rhamnolipids. MDPI 2023-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10048978/ /pubmed/36982468 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24065395 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Esposito, Rodolfo
Speciale, Immacolata
De Castro, Cristina
D’Errico, Gerardino
Russo Krauss, Irene
Rhamnolipid Self-Aggregation in Aqueous Media: A Long Journey toward the Definition of Structure–Property Relationships
title Rhamnolipid Self-Aggregation in Aqueous Media: A Long Journey toward the Definition of Structure–Property Relationships
title_full Rhamnolipid Self-Aggregation in Aqueous Media: A Long Journey toward the Definition of Structure–Property Relationships
title_fullStr Rhamnolipid Self-Aggregation in Aqueous Media: A Long Journey toward the Definition of Structure–Property Relationships
title_full_unstemmed Rhamnolipid Self-Aggregation in Aqueous Media: A Long Journey toward the Definition of Structure–Property Relationships
title_short Rhamnolipid Self-Aggregation in Aqueous Media: A Long Journey toward the Definition of Structure–Property Relationships
title_sort rhamnolipid self-aggregation in aqueous media: a long journey toward the definition of structure–property relationships
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10048978/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36982468
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24065395
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