Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Caterina TOMULESCU, Roxana STOICA, Claudia SEVCENCO, Angela CĂŞĂRICĂ, Mişu MOSCOVICI, Adrian VAMANU
This review aimed to present a short summary of the biosynthesis, properties and industrial applications of levan, as a multiuse biopolymer. During the past years, a great number of bacterial polysaccharides have been discovered and nowadays, many studies about their molecular structure, biosynthesis and industrial development, or their functional properties establish correlations emphasizing their significant industrial value, especially as biomaterials. Levan and inulin are the main representative molecules, in the fructans group (as non-structural carbohydrates - fructose polymers). Levan is an extracellular polysaccharide (EPS), a biologically active polymer. It is a naturally occurring homopolymer of fructose, which can be found in plants and many microbial strains. Its main plant sources are: Agropyron cristatum, Dactylis glomerata, Poa secunda, Triticum aestivum, Cocksfoot and Pachysandra terminalis. As an EPS, levan is also produced, usually from sucrose-based substrates, by a variety of microorganisms: the most known microbial levan producers belong to the genera Zymomonas, Bacillus, Acetobacter, Aerobacter, Pseudomonas, Erwinia, Gluconobacter, Streptococcus and Corynebacterium. Many research works attribute levan a variety of potential applications in various fields, like: medical, chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries. General properties like film-forming ability, flexibility, renewability, biocompatibility, biodegradability and ecofriendliness, along with a number of remarkable physical, chemical and biomedical properties, made levan a superior biopolymer in many commercial sectors.
[Read full article] [Citation]
