Industrial significance and economics of hemicellulose bioconversion for sustainable ecofriendly development: A state-of-art review

umerous naturally available biological products including metabolites are synthesised that have valuable and significant applications in numerous important sectors integrated into human life. Biologically sourced enzymes from plants, animals and microbes are capable of degrading complex biological polysaccharides like cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, pectin etc. Hemicellulose is an important plant cell wall component synthesised through pentose/hexose pathways. The pentose sugars, the monomeric form of it, could further be transformed to valuable metabolites like clean energy, organic acids, alcohols, single-cell protein and pigments, as also useful enzymes. Clostridium stercorarium, for instance, contains 50 dedicated genes to produce thermostable hemicellulose-degrading enzymes like glycoside hydrolase. Arabinoxylooligosaccharides degrading GH10 xylanases, xylanases Xyn105F and β-D-xylosidase Bxl31D are also reported. While Phanerochaete chrysosporium possesses cellobiohydrolase, filamentous fungi like Aspergillus and Trichoderma reportedly can degrade hemicellulose. This review attempts at detailed insights into the natural sources of hemicellulose, its extraction approaches and the responsible hemicellulose-degrading bioenzymes. Their numerous applications in various sectors are also discussed.