Eco-friendly extraction and characterization of cellulose from fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-gracum l.) stem

Abstract

Recently, cellulose and its application acquire more attraction in the research and industrial sector due to its desirable properties like its a biopolymer, environment-friendly, inexhaustible, and its thermal and chemical stability are also high when fused with composites preparation. The present study reports an eco-friendly process that involved de-waxing, alkali, and bleaching treatments to extract cellulose from the Fenugreek stems (FS). The fenugreek stems are the chief agricultural wastes in India and can consider as absolute raw material for cellulose extraction. The obtained cellulose was characterized along with commercial cellulose to compare the efficiency of the extracted cellulose for its various properties viz., purity, presence or absence of hemicellulose, and lignin, crystallization, thermal stability, and surface morphology. The FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) analysis revealed the successful removal of lignin and hemicellulose functionality. The crystallinity index obtained from XRD (X-ray diffractograms) for commercial and fenugreek cellulose found to be 55.11% and 54.68 %. The DSC (Differential scanning calorimetry) analysis confirms that extracted cellulose has (318○C to 352○C) better thermal stability than of raw fenugreek sample (314○C to 346○C). The SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) confirms that extracted cellulose has a rough and less bulky surface, which indicates the removal of non-cellulosic constituents. The results confirm that applied method gives high-grade quality and a 74% yield of cellulose, which can apply in the preparation of future biopolymer composites.