An initial purification by removing the worst interferences and also to concentrate
the sample to a significant quantity requires for liquid chromatography-mass
spectroscopy (LC-MS) analysis of biosurfactants (Biniarz et al. 2017). It utilizes
differences in hydrophobicity to achieve partitioning between a polar mobile phase
and a nonpolar stationary phase. The use of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was reported in the quantification, characterization, and purification of
biosurfactant (Pathak and Keharia 2014). Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy
(GCMS) is used to characterize the biosurfactants by measuring the molecular
weight of the compound. The sample needs hydrolytic cleavage between the carbohydrate/lipid and peptide/protein portions present in the biosurfactant for HPLC
analysis. The GC-MS results are analyzed by fatty acid derivatization to fatty acid
methyl esters (FAME) and further conversion to trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives
(Vandana and Singh 2018).
Fig. 1.6 Merits and demerits of methods prescribed for biosurfactant characterization
1 A Review on Production, Properties, and Applications of Microbial Surfactants as. . .
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