Rice straw was procured from local agricultural fields and was
processed using procedure described in our earlier paper [15]. 5%
w/v mixture of RS, i.e. 75 g RS added to 1500 mL of acidified double
distilled water (1% H2SO4), was taken in a specially designed pretreatment
vessel of volume 2 L. This mixture was stirred at 60 C
for 24 h at 200 rpm using a mechanical stirrer. It was then autoclaved
at 121 C at 15 psi steam pressure (as per the specifications
of autoclave available in our laboratory) for 15 min, and was allowed
to cool to room temperature. RS suspension was filtered
using a sterile cotton cloth. pH of the hydrolyzate thus obtained
was 1.0. Small aliquots were taken out at different stages of the
pretreatment, in order to quantify the release of total sugar, reducing
sugar and glucose content of the hydrolyzate.