Enzymatic retting of jute ribbons

Commercial enzyme preparations, viz. Pectinex ultra Sp-L and Flaxzyme consisting predominantly of pectinolytic enzymes were found to ret green jute ribbons within 48 h, producing fairly good quality jute fibres. The commercial enzyme Celluclast, consisting mainly of cellulase, hemicellulase and a relatively low proportion of pectinase was, on the other hand, ineffective in bringing about similar retting. A fiftyfold dilution of both Pectinex ultra Sp-L and Flaxzyme was able to ret ribbons of jute plants of 105–115 days old. producing fibres having a fineness in the range of 1.6–1.7 tex and a tenacity of bundles in the range of 23–25 g/tex. The fibres produced were totally free of barky root ends. Metal complexing agents such as citrate phosphate buffer and EDTA were found to stimulate enzymatic retting thereby helping to reduce effective enzyme concentration. The ret-liquor containing the retting end products were partially analysed. Amongst the monosaccharides, galacturonic acid was most predominant followed by glucose, arabinose, galactose and xylose; and amongst the gummy polysaccharides, pectin was most conspicuous.