Rubber products are widely used in our daily life which are mainly made up of Natural rubber (NR) obtained from the latex of tree Hevea brasiliensis commonly called Rubber tree. After the usage of these natural rubber products the disposal of these products is a worldwide solid waste problem. Microbial degradation of products can be a solution to this problem. In current work different fungal species were isolated from the soil where natural rubber samples were dumped. In all the isolated fungi Aspergillus terreus (22.6%) effectively degraded rubber. Degradation of rubber was further confirmed by SEM, FTIR and Schiff’s staining methods. Further it was studied that laccase and manganese peroxidase enzyme produced by Aspergillus terreus were responsible for rubber degradation. Hence, it can be concluded that Aspergillus terreus can be effectively used for the degradation of rubber in an ecofriendly way.
Sowmya H. V. and Thippeswamy B.* Nayanashree G. (Sat,) studied this question.