Abstract

Sugar fatty acid esters are biodegradable and biocompatible nonionic biobased surfactants or emulsifiers, obtained from abundant renewable resources. They have a dozen of applications in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. In this book chapter, we briefly reviewed the enzymatic synthesis of sugar fatty acid esters in solvent-free system and their bioactive characteristics, including antimicrobial activity, anti-tumor activity and anti-insect activity. In addition, we compared the antimicrobial and antitumor properties of sugar fatty acid esters synthesized from enzyme with commercial sugar fatty acid ester produced and purified from a chemical reaction.