M.N. ABUBACKER, P. ANBul, A. HILDA' AND S. SENTHILKUMAR2
Abstract
Fifteen fungal species which colonize the stored books in the library have been isolated and the cellulose biodegradative potential of these fungi was examined. Carbon di-oxide (CO2) release during biodegradation of cellulose was used as an index to determine the extent of biodegradation. Phoma glomerata, Paecilomyces cameus, Geotrichum candidum, 8/polaris maydis and Hum/cola fuscoatra released more CO2 with paper used as substrate of biodegradation. These potential fungi can be exploited in cellulose waste recycling process. the help of a sterile inoculation loop. These fungal spores are inoculated in the Czapek's - Sucrose - Nitrate - Agar - Medium (Booth, 1971) in the inoculation chamber in Petri dishes and then incubated at 28° ± 1°C. Further subcultures were made and the pure cultures were maintained in the laboratory for further studies The fifteen fungal species isolated are listed