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A sophorolipid is a surface-active glycolipid compound that can be synthesized by a selected number of non-pathogenic yeast species. The first report on sophorolipids was published in 1961,〔Gorin, P. A. J.; Spencer, J. F. T.; Tulloch, A. P., hydroxyfatty acid glycosides of sophorose from torulopsis magnoliae. Canadian Journal of Chemistry 1961, 39 (4), 846-855.〕 but in the last two decades, because of growing environmental awareness, they have gained increased attention as potential bio-surfactants due to their biodegradability, low eco-toxicity. Today sophorolipids are considered promising bio-surfactants. ==Biosurfactants== The term "biosurfactant" can be applied to a surfactant that is obtained directly from a natural source (from plant, animal or microbial cells) by some kind of separation procedure such as extraction, precipitation or distillation. These surfactants have recently gained appeal as an alternative to surfactants organically synthesized from petrochemicals. While many bio-surfactants prove to be acceptable substitutes for their synthetic counterparts, often minor chemical processing can alter their properties to meet specific needs. There is debate regarding how much organic synthesis should be involved while still being able to call a given substance a bio-surfactant, but currently the term is not protected and often "bio-based surfactant" is used interchangeably with "bio-surfactant". Since surface active agents are abundant in nature, the factor that limits the production of bio-surfactants is definitely not their presence, but likely the technological cost of scaled-up production, separation, and purification. In most instances this makes the cost of bio-based surfactants much higher than the cost of their synthetic equivalents. For example, most biological membranes are made up of a phospholipid bilayer which is composed of surfactant molecules having a polar head and non-polar or hydrophobic tail. However while these phospholipids are ubiquitous in nature, their intracellular location and interaction with other cellular components make their recovery and purification difficult and costly. Other than sophorolipids, common biosurfactants include rhamnolipids which can be produced by some species of Pseudomonas, and Lecithin which can be obtained either from soybean or from egg yolk and is a common food ingredient. One of interesting surfactants producing by yeast are cellobiose lipids consist of a residue of cellobiose, the disaccharide composed of two glucose residues linked by a 1,4'-beta-glycoside bond, and fatty acid residue as an aglycone .〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sophorolipid」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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