Biosurfactants combine physicochemical properties with biological activities. Whilst biosurfactants are often expressed by microorganisms, an increasing amount is produced by chemical synthesis. As many exist in the form of homologous compounds, it is often difficult to purify biosurfactants. But this has not limited the efforts to develop their commercial applications. In this short review, we have featured the recent advances in three important types of biosurfactants, lipopeptides, nucleolipids and glycolipids. We have focused on comparing some of the key properties and functionalities between modern synthetic versions and their corresponding natural counterparts. We end the review by outlining the needs for not only strengthening their basic structure-property relationships through further research but also developing better technologies, irrespective of direct chemical synthesis or biological synthesis of biosurfactants through constructions of genetically engineered strains, to help advance the commercial use of biosurfactants.

生物表面活性剂将理化性质与生物活性结合在一起。尽管生物表面活性剂通常由微生物表达，但化学合成却产生了越来越多的生物表面活性剂。由于许多以同源化合物的形式存在，因此通常难以纯化生物表面活性剂。但这并没有限制开发其商业应用程序的努力。在这篇简短的评论中，我们重点介绍了三种重要类型的生物表面活性剂，脂肽，核苷酸和糖脂的最新进展。我们专注于比较现代合成版本与其对应的自然对应版本之间的一些关键特性和功能。在结束审查时，我们概述了不仅需要通过进一步研究来加强其基本结构与财产之间的关系，而且还需要开发更好的技术，