Abstract

Pilanee Vaithanomsat*, Poom Phusanakom, Waraporn Apiwatanapiwat and Molnapat Songpim

This study is related to a process for the separation of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. fibers using living microorganisms. The selected fungal strains, Datronia sp. and Oligoporous sp., were isolated from natural sources in Thailand and were previously shown to be capable of degrading lignin in pulp and paper industrial wastewater. The process described here is comprising the fungal-treated fibrous of H. sabdariffa L. barks in certain conditions. The fungal inoculum size, retting time and retting temperature were important in the experiments and the retting efficiency was based on the visual characteristics of resulting fibers. In addition, the pectinolytic enzymes released from the fungi in retting conditions were shown to correspond to the separation of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. fibers.