Читать книгу Biopolymers for Biomedical and Biotechnological Applications - Группа авторов - Страница 55

Microbial polysaccharides are characterized by a range of valuable properties that render them suitable for broad areas of applications, including high‐value market niches like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and biomedicine. Such biopolymers often possess novel or improved properties compared with synthetic polysaccharides, as well as those obtained from other natural sources (e.g. plants, algae, and animals). Besides their already established uses mostly as rheology modifiers, texturing agents, and bioemulsifiers, many microbial polysaccharides are currently arising as relevant bioactive materials displaying antioxidant, antitumor, immune enhancer, antiaging, and cholesterol lowering, which render them potentially suitable for the development of novel pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and cosmetic products. Moreover, there is intense research related to their use in biopolymeric structures (e.g. hydrogels, bionanocomposites, etc.) possessing advantageous properties compared with other commercial materials. There are a growing number of reports on the isolation of new microbial sources that synthesize polysaccharides with distinctive properties, which may translate into the development of novel biomaterials or active drugs. Therefore, microorganisms represent a still underexplored source of products that, given the current research interest in their study, will surely translate into high‐value novel products, particularly for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.