Over the past few decades, various terrestrial and aquatic sources have been explored for bioactive polysaccharides, and a wide range of biological activities including anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antitumor activities were reported.
Interestingly, among the identified sourcesmicrobial polysaccharides received great attention due to ease of extraction in pure form.
Microbial polysaccharides are generally divided into three groups based on its present location in the microbial cell; cell wall polysaccharides, intercellular polysaccharides and exocellular polysaccharides.
The latter, EPS, are commercially valuable products of microorganisms since they are constantly diffused into the culturemedium, easy to isolate from the culture media and free from protein and cell debris.
It is widely accepted that microbial EPS offer many advantages over plant polysaccharides due to their novel functions and stable chemical and physical properties.