BackgroundRemoval of non-cellulosic impurities from cotton fabric, known as scouring, by conventional alkaline treatment causes environmental problems and reduces physical strength of fabrics. In this study, an endo-polygalacturonase (EndoPG) from Aspergillus aculeatus produced in Pichia pastoris was evaluated for its efficiency as a bioscouring agent while most current bioscouring process has been performed using crude pectinase preparation.ResultsThe recombinant EndoPG exhibited a specific activity of 1892.08 U/mg on citrus pectin under the optimal condition at 50 °C, pH 5.0 with a Vmax and Km of 65,451.35 μmol/min/mL and 15.14 mg/mL, respectively. A maximal activity of 2408.70 ± 26.50 U/mL in the culture supernatant was obtained by high cell density batch fermentation, equivalent to a 4.8 times greater yield than that from shake-flask culture. The recombinant enzyme was shown to be suitable for application as a bioscouring agent, in which the wettability of cotton fabric was increased by treatment with enzyme at 300 U/mL scouring solution at 40 °C, pH 5.0 for 1 h. The bio-scoured fabric has comparable wettability to that obtained by conventional chemical scouring, but has higher tensile strength.ConclusionThe work has demonstrated for the first time functions of A. aculeatus EndoPG on bioscouring in eco-textile processing. EndoPG alone was shown to possess effective scouring activity. High expression level and homogeneity could be achieved in bench-scale bioreactor.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12896-017-0334-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Natural dyes fromEucalyptusleaf extract, quercetin, rutin, and tannin were applied to silk fabric by pad-batch and pad-dry techniques under different conditions. Ferrous sulfate was used as a mordant. The dyeing properties were evaluated by measuringK/SandCIELABvalues. In addition, the different fastness properties were evaluated. The effect of dyes at different concentration levels with respect to their colour strength was also studied.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.