Chapter 5 - Pullulan: a bioactive fungal exopolysaccharide with broad spectrum of applications for human welfare

Abstract

Microbially produced metabolites have been extensively used in recent years in a broad range of industrial and therapeutic applications for human welfare. Pullulan is a commercially important exopolysaccharide (EPS) produced by the yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans. Owing to its outstanding film-forming and rheological properties, pullulan and its derivatives are extensively used in a vast range of applications in diverse fields like food, textile, agriculture, biomedical, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, etc. There are more than 300 different applications of pullulan that have been patented. Thus considering the wider utility of EPS pullulan in a variety of applications; the present chapter discusses microbial sources of pullulan, the structure and properties of pullulan, pullulan biosynthesis, and the wider utility of this valuable microbial metabolite in diverse therapeutic applications.