Natural rubber (NR), or
cis-1,4 poly-isoprene, is
one of the most important biopolymers. For almost a
100 years, million tons of NR-derived products have been
produced by humankind as it is very elastic in nature. These
products are mainly made up of NR, which is obtained from
the latex of tree
Hevea brasiliensis
commonly called rubber tree. After usage of these NR products, the disposal of these
products is the worldwide solid waste problem. To reduce this
problem, microbial degradation of the product should be
developed. Microbial degradation is mainly carried out by
various microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. Rubberdegrading
organisms were isolated by soil burial method. In
the isolated organism,
Penicillium chrysogenum
effectively
degraded the NR sample, and enzyme responsible for degradation
was also studied. The present study has showed that it is
possible to use this strain to degrade the NR.
