Production of xylanase of Bacillus coagulans and its bleaching potential

The production of xylanase from Bacillus coagulans has been studied with respect to the environmental parameters, the carbon source and the concentration of carbon source at the shake flask level. Among the various carbon sources used, wheat straw powder favoured higher enzyme production. Xylan isolated from wheat straw gave higher enzyme production as compared to the birchwood xylan. Maximum enzyme activity of 165 IU/ml was obtained with 2% wheat straw xylan in a shake flask study. Improvement of xylanase production was achieved by increasing the wheat straw powder concentration up to 3%. Enzyme has optimum activity at a temperature of 55 degrees C and pH of 7. The concentrated crude enzyme was found to reduce the kappa number of enzyme-treated eucalyptus pulp by 5.45% with a marginal increase in the CED viscosity of the enzyme treated pulp as compared to the non-enzymatically treated pulp.