RAMIE (BOEHMERIA NIVEA): AN UNDERUTILIZED PLANT FOR A MULTIPURPOSE INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION; A PERENNIAL PLANT WITH PROTEIN IDENTIFICATION USING MALDI-MS, A BIOSORBENT FOR Hg (II) REMOVAL FROM WATER AND AS A BAST FIBER PRODUCTION VIA ENZYMATIC DEGUMMING

Author

Abdul Rashid IssifuFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-2023

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

School

Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Committee Chair

Dr. Wujian Miao

Committee Chair School

Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Committee Member 2

Dr. Song Guo

Committee Member 2 School

Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Committee Member 3

Dr. Karl J Wallace

Committee Member 3 School

Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Abstract

Identifying plant species that can offer life support to humans and animals without damaging the environment is quite challenging. Ramie, one of the oldest fiber crops was studied due to its nutritional value as fodder and other multipurpose applications in, e.g., medicinal, environmental, and textile industrial fields.

With a brief discussion of background in Chapter I, Chapter II focused on using a proteomic method to investigate unknown proteins in the leaves of ramie and to study their benefits to the biological system. PPiase and RuBisCO with molecular weight 15 and 52 KDa were identified as the proteins after peptide mass fingerprinting analysis in mascot based based on their matched peptides. These proteins were known to contain some essential amino acids that are useful for food applications and in medicine. These findings may be some of the reasons why most ramie growing countries consume the plant leaves and use them as medicine. Chapter III focuses on using ramie leaves as a low cost biosorbent with suitable pore size for Hg(II) removal. A higher percentage removal from 70 – 90.2 was obtained after the adsorption process.

Chapter IV focuses on using a combined degumming method of pectinase enzyme and a 5 % Na₂CO₃ for the treatment of ramie fibers. The treatment method revealed good individual fibers with a clean surface and the removal of the gummy materials on the fiber surface as compared to methods involving only chemical and bacterial enzyme treatment. Chapter V provides the summary and outlook for this research.

Copyright

Abdul Rashid Issifu,2023

Recommended Citation

Issifu, Abdul Rashid, "RAMIE (BOEHMERIA NIVEA): AN UNDERUTILIZED PLANT FOR A MULTIPURPOSE INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION; A PERENNIAL PLANT WITH PROTEIN IDENTIFICATION USING MALDI-MS, A BIOSORBENT FOR Hg (II) REMOVAL FROM WATER AND AS A BAST FIBER PRODUCTION VIA ENZYMATIC DEGUMMING" (2023). Master's Theses. 953.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/953