Pentose-based surfactants could be obtained enzymatically from hydrothermally pretreated wheat bran.
Wheat is an important agricultural cereal in Europe and the waste generated annually from this industry could produce 115 billion litres of bioethanol. In view of this there is a lot of interest in producing fine chemicals from this lignocellulosic 
In this work, Caroline Rémond and colleagues from France, report the enzymatic synthesis of pentyl and octyl-β-D-xylosides and oligoxylosides first from xylan and then from hydrothermally pretreated wheat bran. As well as thoroughly investigating the various parameters that affect the nature and yield of the final product, the pentyl and octyl oligoxylosides obtained from the hydrothermally pretreated wheat bran exhibited good surface properties, demonstrating that the production of green surfactants can be envisaged from renewable resources using biotechnological methodologies.
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Enzymatic synthesis of alkyl β-D-xylosides and oligoxylosides from xylans and from hydrothermally pretreated wheat bran, Marjorie Ochs, Murielle Muzard, Richard Plantier–Royon, Boris Estrine and Caroline Rémond, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 2380-2388
