Several biological processes in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms require the presence of glycolipids (biosurfactants), compounds with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups in their structure. They constitute the backbone of different metabolic functions and biological structures such as cell membranes. Besides being structural components, glycolipids show surface activity in the interfaces and are mainly produced by microorganisms. Interest in biosurfactants has increased considerably in recent times due to their applications in the environmental, oil, food, and pharmaceutical industries, since they have unique properties such as low toxicity, high biodegradability, environmentally friendly, foaming capacity, high selectivity and specificity at extreme temperatures, pH and salinity, as well as biological activity. All of these properties are considered advantages over other chemical surfactants, and therefore glycolipids are considered a good alternative, given the current interest on sustainable development. The present work shows a general view of bio-surfactants of microbial origin, particularly of glycolipids, referring to several studies on their biological activity that have revealed their great potential in the medical-biological field, discovering interesting possibilities for their therapeutic application in the near future.

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Cactus pears (Opuntia ficus-indica) are draught resistant plants originated in Mexico. Their flattened stem segments, called cladodes, have moisture, protein and fibre contents of 92, 1-2 and 4-6% respectively, and a pectin content in the range of 0.8-3.3% depending on the species. They also contain certain concentration of carotenoids which are of special interest because of their antioxidant activity. This work is aimed to identify and quantify the main carotenoids present in the stems and to evaluate the effect of thermal treatments on the antioxidant activity and concentration of carotenoids and phenolic compounds. The carotenoids -cryptoxanthin, -carotene and lutein were identified in the cladodes, the latter having the highest concentration. Thermal treatments increased the extractability of these pigments and the antioxidant activity was related to the carotenoids concentration. Total phenolic content decreased after the thermal treatments; however this result had little effect on the antioxidant activity. Mucilage present in the stems decreased the extractability of the carotenoids.

Flavonoids are a big group of polyphenols of low molecular weight with in vitro antioxidant properties. In this study, the laccase and tyrosinase from Ustilago maydis were partially characterized and their effect on the antioxidant activity of some phenolic compounds was investigated. Since enzymatic polymerization of the phenolic compounds was detected, the size of the aggregates was determined and related to their antioxidant activity. Morphology of the polymers was analyzed by atomic force microscopy. The results showed that the laccase- and tyrosinase-catalyzed polymerization of quercetin produced aggregates with relatively low molecular weight and higher antioxidant activity than the monomeric quercetin. In the case of kaempferol, the aggregates reached higher sizes in the first 2 h of reaction and their antioxidant activity was increased. In the last case, the aggregates adopted fractal-ordered shapes similar to coral in the case of the kaempferol-laccase system and to fern in the case of the kaempferol-tyrosinase system. The kaempferol and quercetin polymers at low concentration had strong scavenging effect on Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inhibition of lipoperoxidation in human hepatic cell line WRL-68.

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