Polymer Extraction from Processed Lignocellulosic Biomass Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) for the Potential Biological Activities

Abstract

Eichhornia crassipes (Water hyacinth) is considered a hazardous weed in numerous places in the world. Notwithstanding its natural disintegrating impacts, the weed, despite everything, offers the potential to be utilized as a substrate for the production of industrially important products. In this study, biological activities of water hyacinth biomass-derived cellulose composite were prepared and checked for biological activities. Cellulose was extracted from acid-alkali treated biomass of water hyacinth followed by fabrication with chlorpyrifos pesticide and curcumin. Potential biological activities of the prepared composite were also studied. The effect of solvents like ethanol, phosphate-buffered saline, and distilled water on the release of pesticide and curcumin was studied under in vitro condition. Powdered biomass treated with acid-alkali brought about highly stable, crystalline, cellulose with a final yield of 22.4 g/100 g of dry weight. Characterizationtechniquesreveals structural modification of extracted cellulose with chlorpyrifos, curcumin, and the conversion of fabricated material as composite. Among the solvents tested, ethanol recorded maximum release of chlorpyrifos, curcumin at all the tested time periods, and the biological activities were also found to be increased in ethanol released samples. Structurally, functionally stable cellulose extracted from water hyacinth biomass and its derived composite material would suggest noteworthy bioresource utilization approaches of versatile invasive aquatic weeds.