Bioengineering of Xylan Production

Abstract

Xylan has a wide application in different types of fields specifically in coating of pipelines and drug delivery systems. Xylan was extracted from cheap agricultural wastes such as sugarcane bagasse, corncobs, ricehulls, wheat husks by alkaline method. The presence of xylan was confirmed by identifying the functional groups by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The concentration of glucose was analyzed quantitatively by phenol sulphuric acid assay. It was found tha tminimum concentration of glucose was observed as present in the commercial xylan. The extracted xylan was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy to determine the morphology. The aim of the study is to compare the efficiency of extraction among various agro- wastes. This study reveals that maximum production of xylan was obtained in sugarcane bagasse when compared with corncobs, rice hulls and wheat husks. The maximum xylan recovery of 67.5% was found from sugarcane bagasse