Abstract
The persisting demand for new effective therapeutical agents triggers intensive research in the field of diverse natural antimicrobial compounds such as lipopeptides with the principal representative surfactin. This secondary metabolite produced by B. subtilis disturbs the integrity of the membrane, which is the basis of a variety of its biological activities such as antibacterial, antifungal, antimycoplasma, antitumor and antiviral properties.
These characteristics make it a candidate drug with a lot of applicable potential in biomedicine. Recently, a valuable piece of information has been published regarding the biological and physiological relevance of surfactin for the producer itself.
Several obstacles that nowadays hinder the exploitation of surfactin application are discussed.