Mechanism of Kenaf Retting Using Aerobes

The experimental results showed that the duration of microbial retting processing of kenaf fibers by using aerobic microbe was four times shorter than that by using anaerobic microbe. The residual gum percentage, breaking strength, breaking elongation and linear density of aerobic retted kenaf bundle fibers did not show significantly difference with that of anaerobic retted kenaf bundle fibers by ANOVA-Tukey's studentized test at a = 5% except for the softness. The bioenergetic principle and the calculation of the amount of ATP produced during the decomposition processing of kenaf gums were used to explain why the retting duration in the case of using aerobic microbes was much shorter than that of using anaerobic microbes.