Converting Agricultural Waste into Sustainable and Valuable Antifungal Nanocellulose

To achieve sustainable development goals, due to the limited availability of timber resources and inadequate environmental regulations, studies have turned to consuming agricultural waste as a cost-effective and readily available source for cellulosic resources and simple, eco-friendly fruit preservation technology. The aim of this study was using Three types of agricultural wastes to produce nanocellulose by two methods: acid hydrolysis and grinding and the obtained nanocellulose characterized by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and test their antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger and Penicillium sp. these fungi were obtained from the fungal collection of the biology Department of College of science in Mustansiriyah University. SEM images of the nanocellulose revealed a heterogeneous mixture of irregularly shaped crystals with a size range of 79-93 nm in acid hydrolysis and 60-67 nm in the grinding method. The percentage crystallinity of nanocellulose with high intensity values like 1324.83 and 1421.87. Minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of synthesized nanocellulose against Fungi was evaluated by the diffusion in agar method in four concentrations: 0.5%, 1%, 15%. %, and 2%, respectively. The best inhibition percent of Aspergillus niger were 80 % and 90 % for Penicillium sp. in 2% of nanocellulose after 7 days of incubation. The increased concentration statistically affected all fungal activity (P<0.05). Nanocellulose was more effective against Aspergillus niger and Penicillium sp. Accordingly; this study shows that this nanocellulose-based low-cost waste biomass had a potential fungicidal effect.