Ricerc@Sapienza

Biodegradation of plant waste is a fundamental biological process of the circulation of organic substances in nature, which allows heterotrophic microorganisms to use a polymer organic substrate formed by photosynthetic macroorganisms. The ability to degradation high-molecular components of wood have various prokaryotes and fungi. The accumulation of a large amount of bark and pulp wastes from the paper and woodworking industry is the serious environmental problem despite the fack that enzyme systems which could utilize raw vegetable materials are widespread in nature.

Corn husks are an important byproduct of the corn processing industry. Although they are a rich source of bioactive compounds, especially flavonoids, corn husks are usually disposed of or used as animal feed. In this paper, we investigate their recovery by an enzyme-assisted extraction process consisting of a pretreatment of the plant material with cellulase followed by solvent extraction with aqueous ethanol.