Hi Rohan,

I'm afraid that hydrolyzing straw cellulose with alkali is not a good option. You will have to add high concentrations of NaOH or KOH to hydrolyse cellulose in cellobiose, which is not a common sugar for culture media as very few organisms are able to grow with this carbon source.

When hydrolysis is done, you will have a solution with high pH (>12), and high ionic (Na+ or K+) concentration, and you will have to neutralize it with HCl or H2SO4, add more ions ...

Don't you have access to cellulase ?

Cheers

Oliv

Thank you, sir.

I did treat wheat straw with NaOH solution and neutralized it with HCl. I also performed Molisch's test, which came positive for carbohydrates. So, I hope to estimate sugar concentration now.

Currently, I don't have cellulase and I was hoping for an alternative.