초록
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is one of the most important commercial crops for the production of palm oil, which generates 10.88tons of oil palm fronds per hectare of plantation as a by-product. In this study, oil palm frond fibres were subjected to an autohydrolysis treatment using an autoclave, operated at 121<SUP>o</SUP>C for 20-80min, to facilitate the separation of hemicelluloses. The hemicellulose-rich solution (autohydrolysate) was subjected to further hydrolysis with 4-16U of mixed Trichoderma viride endo-(1,4)-β-xylanases (EC 3.2.1.8) per 100mg of autohydrolysate. Autoclaving of palm fronds at 121<SUP>o</SUP>C for 60min (a severity factor of 2.40) recovered 75% of the solid residue, containing 57.9% cellulose and 18% Klason lignin, and an autohydrolysate containing 14.94% hemicellulose, with a fractionation efficiency of 49.20%. Subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of the autohydrolysate with 8U of endoxylanase at 40<SUP>o</SUP>C for 24h produced a solution containing 17.5% xylooligosaccharides and 25.6% xylose. The results clearly indicate the potential utilization of oil palm frond, an abundantly available lignocellulosic biomass for the production of xylose and xylooligosaccharides which can serve as functional food ingredients.