Parthenium sp. as Substrate for Production of Cellulolytic Enzymes by Trichoderma spp

Abstract

High cost of saccharifying enzymes is one of the major constraints for commercialization of bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. Production of cellulolytic enzymes using lignocellulosic biomass such as agro-residues and weeds is an economically viable option in bioenergy industry. In this study, a noxious weed, Parthenium sp. was investigated as a substrate for production of cellulolytic enzymes CMCase, FPase, ß-glucosidase and xylanase. Two isolates namely Trichoderma harzianum and T. longibrachiatum were cultivated on Parthenium sp. under submerged (1% w/v) and solid-state fermentation (20% w/v) for production of cellulolytic enzymes. Under SSF, maximum production of CMCase (63.32 IU/g), FPase (9.87 IU/g) and cellobiase (16.36 IU/g) were achieved from T. harzianum while xylanase (393.34 IU/g) was achieved from T. longibrachiatum. Structural and crystallinity changes of biomass were examined through Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction analysis (XRD), respectively. Decrease in crystallinity index (CrI) of fungal treated biomass revealed the effective degradation of cellulosic components in biomass. The results showed that the menace of Parthenium sp. in agriculture can be managed by using it as substrate for production of cellulolytic enzymes which in turn reduces the cost of bioethanol production.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.S.000441

Pages

31 - 35

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords