Aerobic Bacteria Involved in the Retting of Jute.

Jute, Corchorus capsularis, is the most important cash crop of Pakistan. Most of the foreign exchange earned comes from the export of jute. For this reason jute is popularly called the "golden fiber" of Pakistan. A very importanit step in the jute industry is retting. During this process, some microorganisms decompose pectins of jute bark and the intervening tissues disintegrate. The pectins are divided into three groups: (a) protopectins, (b) pectins, and (c) pectic acids. The enzyme protopectinase is known to hydrolyse protopectin to pectin which is broken down by the enzyme pectinase to galacturonic acid and residues. Microorganisms are capable of producing one or all of these enzymes that break doWn the pectic substances (Chaudhury, 1951). Adati and Yoshimara (1939) isolated two species of aerobic bacteria whose actions on jute stem were not studied. Katagiri and NIakahama (1940) isolated an anaerobic bacillus, Bacillus corchorus n. sp., which retted jute stems. Patel and Ghosh (1943) reported accelerating effects of different salts on jute retting. Baruah and Baruah (1947) reported actions of extracted enzymes from some bacteria on jute. The bacterial enzymes were reported to have caused the maceration of the tissues by attacking the middle lamella and breaking pectin. The enzymes could ret jute, coconut, and ramie within a period which varied from 1 to 7 days. Bacillus comesii Rossii, an aerobic sporeforming rod has been utilized industrially in Italy, France, and Germany for retting flax and hemp. Kayser and Delavel (1920) isolated five species of aerobic bacteria and one species of anaerobic bacteria which were capable of retting flax and hemp. Hauman (1902) isolated some bacteria from retted flax stems. Patel and Ghosh (1943) also isolated one rod-shaped and one oval bacteria from retted jute stem. Debsharma (1946) isolated some seven species of aerobic bacteria of which Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus mesentericIus, and Bacillus macreans showed ietting ability. Amiruddin (1951) isolated five aerobes of which none was found to ret. This investigation was carried over to detect aerobic jute retting bacteria.