Actinomycetes isolated from 10 different soil and compost samples were screened for production of pectinolytic enzyme activities when grown on pectin-containing solid and liquid media. Pectinolytic enzymes, detected by using plate diffusion tests with a medium containing ramie (Boehmeria nivea) plant material as the sole carbon source, were mainly pectate lyases, but low activities of pectinest...

Bast fibers, such as ramie, hemp, flax and kenaf, are natural fibers with high specific stiffness strength that have gained increasing attention in recent years. advantageous terms of their biodegradability abundance nature, making them promising candidates for automotive industry, structural composites, pulping textile applications etc. There is a strong desire from industry yielding cellulose...

Dynamic TG analysis under nitrogen was used to investigate the thermal decomposition processes of 10 types of natural fibers commonly used in the polymer composite industry. These fibers included wood, bamboo, agricultural residue, and bast fibers. Various degradation models including the Kissinger, Friedman, FlynneWalleOzawa, and modified CoatseRedfern methods were used to determine the appare...

Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) is an important commercial crop that supplies both linseed and bast fibers for multiple applications. Retting, which is a microbial process, separates industrially useful bast fibers from non-fiber stem tissues. While several methods (i.e., waterand dew-retting) are used to ret flax, more recently enzymes have been evaluated to replace methods used currently. Alkal...