Biodeterioration of Cotton by Cellulolytic Fungi

Abstract

Fungal deterioration is a major issue in garment mills; mainly it affects high cellulosic materials like cotton. This study empirically explains the saccharification of cotton by Trichoderma sp., Aspergillus sp., Cladosporium sp., Fusarium sp., and Helminthosporium sp. which were cultured and applied in cotton wool broth. Extracted enzyme suspension was assayed with filter paper and activity was analyzed by DNS reagent method. Tricchoderma sp. and Aspergillus sp. depicts high cellulolytic activity of 33.08 and 32.52 FPU/ml respectively on raw cotton, in addition their saccharifying ability depicted 1.25 and 1.23%. Optimum temperature and pH for activity of each fungal enzyme also affirmed.