Levan is a homopolymer of fructose naturally obtained from both plants and microorganisms. Microbial
levans are more advantageous, economical and industrially feasible with numerous applications. Bacterial levans are much larger than those produced by plants with multiple branches and molecular weights
ranging from 2 to 100 million Da. However levans from plants generally have molecular weights ranging
from about 2000 to 33,000 Da. Microbial levans have wide range of applications in food, medicine, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and commercial industrial sectors. With excellent polymeric medicinal properties
and ease of production, microbial levan appear as a valuable and versatile biopolymer of the future. The
present article summarizes and discusses the most essential properties of bioactive microbial levan and
recent developments in its production, characterization and the emerging applications in health and
industry.