生物表面活性剂主要由微生物发酵和酶催化下合成，具有表面活性剂基本结构与性质的物质，其除了具有化学表面活性剂的特点外，还具有生物兼容性高、安全无毒性、可被生物降解、不会对环境造成不利影响等优点。随着环保意识的增强和食品安全级别的提高，生物表面活性剂开始应用于食品、医药、化妆品、洗涤剂和石油化工等领域，研究开发各种高效、低成本的生物表面活性剂生产技术成为生物化工的研究热点。

Biosurfactants are a kind of biomolecules which have the basic structure and charactersistics of surfactarts and produced by microbial fermentation processes and enzymatic synthesis. Because of their unique properties of great bio-compatibility, low toxicity, high biodegradability and stable activity at extremes of pH, salinity and temperature, biosurfactants have been widely applied to food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and cleaning industries. Therefore, it is very important to raise yields and reduce production costs for the applications on large scale.