Amino Acids as Raw Material for Biocompatible Surfactants

Surfactants are chemical products consumed in large quantities every day on a worldwide scale. The development of less irritant, less toxic, consumer-friendly surfactants is, therefore, of general interest. Amino-acid-based surfactants constitute a novel class of surfactants produced from renewable raw materials and can be seen as an alternative to conventional surfactants. With the aim of testing their applicability in formulations for pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries we have carried out exhaustive studies to elucidate their properties as surfactants. We considered amino acid-based surfactants with one single chain, cystine or arginine gemini surfactants, lysine derivatives, and surfactants with glycerolipid-like structure.