Effect of Purified Trichoderma Reesei Cellulases on Formation of Cotton Powder from Cotton Fabric

ABSTRACT: The mode of action of monocomponent pu-rified Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolases (CBHI and CB-HII) and endoglucanases (EGI and EGII) on cotton fabrics was studied by analyzing the weight loss of the fabric, the reducing sugars, the soluble oligosaccharides and the mo-lecular weight of the cotton powder formed. The impact of mechanical action on these factors was also evaluated. EGI and EGII released the highest amounts of reducing sugars and soluble oligosaccharides in both treatments with or without additional mechanical action. After cellulase treat-ment without additional mechanical action, all of the cellu-lases were found to have reduced the molecular weight of cotton poplin powder. When mechanical action was com-bined with enzyme treatments, only EGII reduced the mo-lecular weight. The weight loss of EG-treated fabrics was clearly higher than the weight loss of CBH-treated fabrics with both low and high mechanical action levels. © 200