Pretreatment of garden biomass by alkali-assisted ultrasonication: effects on enzymatic hydrolysis and ultrastructural changes

The present investigation aims at studying the effectiveness of alkali-assisted ultrasonication on pretreatment ofgarden biomass (gb). dry and powdered gb suspended in 1% naoh was ultrasonicated for 15, 30 and 60 minutesat a frequency of 25 khz. the mode of action and effectiveness of alkali-assisted ultrasonication on gb wasestablished through microscopic, scanning electron microscopic and x-ray diffraction studies. a perusal of resultsshowed that alkali-assisted ultrasonication led to fibrillation of gb which ultimately facilitated enzymatic hydrolysis.the results also indicated that alkali-assisted ultrasonication is an efficient means of pretreatment of gb at moderate(45-50°c) working temperature and low (1%) concentration of alkali. the yield of reducing sugar after enzymatichydrolysis increased almost six times as compared to control due to alkali-assisted ultrasonication.