Instrumental Approaches to the Detection and Quantification of Surfactin

Abstract

Microorganisms are able to produce a wide range of biological surfactants, also known as biosurfactants. The potential for using biosurfactants in various areas of human life requires the development and improvement of methods to find producer strains and to determine the content of biosurfactants in different natural samples, as well as to upgrade the approaches to these substances isolation and purification. This review focuses on the structure, properties, applications, and methods of synthesis of surfactin, which is one of the most interesting lipopeptide biosurfactants, and of its derivatives. Information regarding the instrumental approaches to detecting and measuring surfactin in bacterial cultures, including those based on various types of chromatography (TLC, HPLC, and HPLC-MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry (MS), were summarized and analyzed. The accessibility, sensitivity, selectivity, and overall effectiveness of these techniques were discussed.