Pullulan as a sustainable biopolymer for versatile applications: A review

Pullulan (PUL) has recently gained relevance due to its versatility in commercial applications such as food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics. It is a fungal exopolysaccharide produced by Aureobasidium pullulans under aerobic conditions. In addition to being highly soluble in water, pullulan is also tasteless, odorless, edible, and biodegradable, with advantages including non-carcinogenicity, non-toxicity, non-immunogenicity, and non-mutagenicity, and most importantly, considered 'generally regarded as safe' (GRAS), which makes it a robust choice for commercial applications. This microbial exopolysaccharide has become commercially important, with promising potential in research and industrial development. The advantages of Pullulan and its derivates further include high resistance towards heat and a wide range of viscosity and solubility. Pullulan presents a highly growing industrial market, owing to holds outstanding chemical, biochemical and physical properties, which confer it (as well as its derivatives) versatility and exceptional application potential. Reviewing literature revealed that Pullulan has uses in the food and related industries, pharmaceuticals industries, cosmetics sector, biomedical fields, waste remediation (environmental), analytical techniques, electronics industries, energy production, etc. Moreover, in addition to the increasing interest in the applications in the industry, the versatility of pullulan has researchers around the world gravitating to support improvements in this field. In this review, we have captured the biodegradable materials that were made possible by pullulan for a variety of uses.