The effectiveness of Pleurotus eryngii strains in biodelignification of cotton stalk, causing environmental hazard and disposable problem.

Biodelignification of cotton stalk (CS) by Pleurotus eryngii collected from Tunceli and Elazig province of Turkey under solid state fermentation (SSF) was studied. The effect of the addition of varying concentration (5 & 10% w/w) of rice bran (RB) on lignin degradation and Carbon/Nitrogen (C/N) ratio were investigated. Klason lignin (KL) degradation was followed for 140 day. While substrate initially contained 28.66% KL, maximum lignin loss (69.68±1.05%), occurred on CS +5% RB, C/N ratio of non-fermented cotton stalk initially was 34.13±4.98% and after incubation this ratio decreased to 18.60±0.36% on CS without RB. It was concluded that P. eryngii strain collected from Tunceli province is very effective in delignifying cotton stalk. © 2011 Friends Science Publishers