Silk degumming with carica papaya linn.'s latex

Abstract

Degumming process is a fundamental process for silk yam and silk fabric finishing. The main objective is scouring the substrate such as silk gum (sericin), wax and fatty acid from silk fiber. The principle of degumming process is destroying the peptide linkage of amino acid in sericin structure into a small molecule which is soluble in water. The hydrolysis reaction performed by acid, alkaline, enzyme, surfactant as soap, and high pressure steam process. The conventional methods favor degumming with soap and sodium carbonate. This process has a problem on the surface area of silk. Proteolytic enzymes can answer this problem but it seldom use because of a specific condition and high cost. For this reason, the insteading of papain enzyme from dry latex of Carica payapa Linn. was decided to use for silk degumming at any condition study. This research was concerned with the silk degumming using papain enzyme form dry latex of Carica payapa Linn. The degumming process was performed at the temperature vary from 55 -85 degree Celsius, time fromlO to 40 minutes and the amount of dry latex ranging from 0 to 4% owf in order to study the suitable condition for degumming and surface morphology. The efficiency of degumming process was evaluated by determination of tensile strength and stainiqgJest with dire~~ dyes (C.1. Direct Red 80~StaIDing result.will be opposed to degumming efficiency. The result was revealed; the appropriate conditions for silk degumming with dry Carica payapa Linn. 's latex were recommended as follows : the amount of dry latex solution of 4 % owf at 75 degree Celsius for 30 minutes. The degummed fibers leaves lustrous, soft and surface smooth. This condition does not have effect to tensile strength and fiber surface.