Carbohydrate-Derived Surfactants

The constant need for products obtained from natural raw materials instead of non-renewable petroleum feedstocks has led to a lot of effort on developing new “natural” surfactants. Most important among these are surfactants derived from carbohydrates and plant oils such as coconut or palm kernel. These compounds find applications in cosmetics, food manufacture, biology, etc, and some of them are studied for their liquid crystalline properties.