The protocol for extraction of MCC was that of Bhattacharya et al. [17] with some modifications. The grass samples were first cut into small pieces and then washed thoroughly with water before drying them at room temperature. The dried samples were treated with NaOH (4%) and boiled at 80◦C in water bath for 4h. The samples were washed with water until neutral pH and then bleached with a solution of sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide in 1:1 ratio for 40 min at 100 ◦ C. The samples were rewashed with water until neutral pH yielding the