Studies on dew retting process of kenaf by formulation of indigenous consortium bacteria
Farida Rahayu, Atif Khurshid Wani, Mala Murianingrum, Marjani, Cece Suhara, Budi Hariyono
Abstract
To Indonesia is one of the countries with a long history of Kenaf fiber cultivation besides the US, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and Australia. Retting is the main challenge faced during the processing of bast plants for the production of long fiber. The traditional method of separating the long bast fibers involves a water retting process for about 14 to 28 days to degrade the pectin, hemicellulose, and lignin materials in order to separate fiber from the bast. Even though the fibers produced by the water retting process are of good quality, however, time consumption and polluted water have made this method less feasible. This research is a preliminary evaluation of the dew retting process with 15 optimum days of evaluation duration. Dew retting largely relies on indigenous bacteria to degrade pectin and hemicellulose by releasing polygalacturonase (PGase) and xylanase. The pectinolytic and ligninolytic bacteria from water soaking of kenaf in many parts of East Java can be potential candidates for bioactive formulation. The purpose of this research is to study on dew retting process of Kenaf by using the formulation of indigenous consortium bacteria by spray method. Six formulations of indigenous consortium bacteria have been used in this study to determine the shorter retting time and quality of fibers. The LIGTIN formulation is found to be the best formulation to produce high fiber yield and the good quality of fiber in tensile and performance of the fiber. This formulation is capable of degrading lignin and pectin dwelling in kenaf stem fiber.