Green Degumming of Silk by Enzyme Extracted from Natural Sources

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to degum the silk with natural enzyme in lieu of conventional degumming to make it sustainable. Fibroin and sericin are the main composition of silk. Sericin provides a harsh and stiff effect of silk and decreases the valuable property like luster and whiteness and also leads to uneven dyeing. It is necessary to remove this sericin for the better post processing of silk. The removal process of sericin from silk is called degumming. Usually degumming process is done by using chemicals like soda (Na2CO3), detergent and other chemical staffs. But these chemicals are lethal to the environment. So, if such component found that can be substitute the fatal components and give the same required result or very close then that would be considered as an asset. This work deals with the different enzymes extracted from natural sources such as papaya skin, pineapple skin and guava leaf with variation of enzyme concentrations such as 10 (%), 15 (%) & 20 (%) as well as 35°C 45°C & 55°C temperatures that influence the degumming efficiency. By analyzing the various samples on the basis of degumming efficiency and other tests such as tensile strength, water vapor permeability, pilling and abrasion, crease recovery, whiteness test and spot test are done by standard method, it is found that the enzyme extracted from papaya skin shows the best degumming efficiency 15.9 (%) and other tests also show the good result at 15 (%) concentration and 45°C temperature whereas degumming efficiency 16.6 (%) for conventional process. From this work, it can be concluded that enzyme extracted from papaya skin can be substituted of conventional degumming which is also ecofriendly.