Degumming of silk with a fungal protease

Abstract

Degumming with 25% (owf) Marseille's soap for 1.5 h at boil gives a weight loss of 20.5 %, whereas degumming with enzyme (3 ml/g of fabric) at 37^oC for 3 h gives a weight loss of about 19.8%. Treatment with enzyme requires much lower temperature than that in the conventional process. Processing of silk with enzyme under the above conditions is likely to

retain the lustre and softness of silk. To economize on the quantity of enzyme, the conditions like enzyme concentration, temperature and treatment time have been optimized. The efficiency of this enzyme has been studied in terms of weight loss and strength loss.