Towards utilization of water hyacinth for industrial products: A Review paper

Abstract

Water hyacinth is a useful weed in the cleaning of water bodies loaded with industrial effluent but can become an environmental problem if its growth is not controlled. Water hyacinth is a potential raw material of several industrial applications. However chemical structure of the lignocellulosic hyacinth biomass has to be broken down first in order to obtain fermentable sugars. Wood rotting fungi has been known to delignify plant biomass. Wood rotting fungi secrete extracellular enzymes including lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase and laccase that are important industrial enzymes with numerous biotechnological applications in bio-fuel, food, brewery and wine, animal feed, textile and laundry, pulp and paper and agricultural industries. This paper reviews the potential use of white rot fungi's (Pleurotus sajor caju, Pleurotus ostreatus and Lentinus edodes) extracellular enzymes to biodegrade water hyacinth biomass.

Keywords: water hyacinth, lignocelluloses, wood rotting fungi, extracellular enzymes