Novel process for isolation of major bio-polymers from Mentha arvensis distilled biomass and saccharification of the isolated cellulose to glucose.

Pre-treatment is the key to unlock renewable lignocellulosic biomass for the production of valuable polysaccharides and biochemicals. Mentha arvensis represent an essential oil crop widely cultivated in world for producing high value flavour constituent like menthol (75.8%). After extraction of essential oil (0.93%), the remaining biomass is generally treated as distilled lignocellulosic biomass. Present study aimed to report the potential of newly developed chemical process for the isolation of major biopolymers from distilled M. arvensis biomass and saccharification of isolated cellulose to glucose. The terpene free distilled biomass was used for the isolation of cellulose (38%), hemicellulose (20%) and lignin (8%). The physical and chemical characteristics of fresh and distilled biomass were carried out using bomb calorimeter, XRD, TGA, ICP-MS, FT-IR and CHNS. Isolated cellulose was further enzymatically hydrolysed using Cellic CTec2 (114 FPU/ml) and Trichoderma reesei enzymes (68 FPU/ml) for the maximum glucose production in shake flask method. Our studies showed that Cellic CTec2 is more suitable enzyme for the production of glucose from distilled M. arvensis biomass with the enzyme loading of 10 FPU/g isolated cellulose in 48 h at 50 °C and 4.8 pH. The maximum glucose concentration obtained experimentally was 615 mg/g of isolated cellulose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]