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The mounting disquiets about the usage of precarious chemicals in the textile industry have steered to the development of eco-friendly and biological methods of fiber processing in the ever-escalating horizon of textile fibers. The current study targets the isolation, identification, and screening of lignin-degrading bacteria from termite gut microflora which could be employed in the textile trade, especially in coir industries for developing a biological method for softening coir fibers. Based on the morphology and taxonomic keys, termites used in the study were identified as Odontotermes obesus. The bacteria isolated from the termite gut having lignolytic activity were picked by using the methylene blue dye decolorizing method. The same was confirmed by using tannic acid. The isolates were then identified as Kosakonia oryzendophytica and Pseudomonas chengduensis by 16s rRNA sequencing. The isolates were further checked for their ability to produce extracellular lignolytic enzymes. The enzyme concentration was found to be significantly higher in the medium containing the microbial consortium than in those with the individual cultures. The consortium filtrate has MnP activity of 41.6 U/mL, LiP activity of 114.3 U/mL, and laccase activity of 61.85 U/mL at 72 hours of incubation. It was found that the enzyme activities were increased considerably until 72 hours of incubation but showed an insignificant increase at 96 hours.

Coir fiber, a tough natural lignocellulosic fiber, has widespread uses but are restricted due to its high tensile strength and flexural rigidity. Bioprocessing, particularly softening and bleaching, is a common technique in the coir trade, which currently uses chemical processes that are not environmentally friendly. The current approach targets coir fiberprocessingwith Kozakonia oryzendophytica and Pseudomonas chengduensis isolated from the termite gutfor the delignification followed by the treatment with Averrhoa bilimbi extract to obtain softened and bleached coir fibers. The physical and chemical assessment of the treated fibers, including variations in lignin content, flexural rigidity to assess softness, light fastness, Fourier-Transform InfraRed, and tensile strength, was carried out. The lignin presents in the treated coir fibers dropped significantly from 46% to 31.1%. The flexural rigidity was reduced from 1.12 to 0.53 which caused the upsurge in the degree of softness. The brightness index was increased from 9.45 to 13.49. The scanning electron microscope images show that exterior protrusions on the fiber had been removed after treatment. Thus, the present investigation discovers a trajectory for a biological method of coir fiber softening.

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