Cellulose derivatives: An enzymatic approach to their modification

Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with different degrees of substitution (DS) and molecular weights (MW) have been successfully hydrolyzed by cellulases sourced from different microorganisms. The extent of enzymatic hydrolysis of CMC was shown to decrease with increasing DS. According to chromatographic analyses, the best enzymatic degradation by the crude enzymic preparations employed was 47% when cellulase T from Trichoderma species acted on a CMC of DS = 0·7. However, the complete hydrolysis, required for a quantitative analysis, was reached when CMCs with DS up to 0·7 were degraded by cellulase P, a purified form of celluclast from Trichoderma reesei.