"Development of microbial treatment of ret liquor generated in a coir ...

the tide amounting to about 11h feet in the backwaters and channels
extending along the whole coast. Experiments in stagnant water have shown
that the action soon ceases when the husk becomes dark in color.
When the husk is soaked in water, for the first few days, it gets tinged
distinctly brown due to the organic liberated from it, but the colouring
principle is not entirely removed until retting is completed and danger of
discolourisation is always present until the retted fibres have been well
washed in water. After a few days the water becomes somewhat milky and
this increases until after about thirty days a scum may form on the surface, a
distinct smell of sulphurated hydrogen becomes noticeable and there is a
marked increase of temperature in the mass of husk, bubbles of gas
frequently rising from it. The turbidity, gas formation, smell and rise of
temperature increases from the third to the fifth month, but after six months
the water becomes clearer, the smell and evolution of gas appearing to
diminish (Fowler and Marsden, 1925).
Polyphenols and pectins are major constituents representing as much
as 75 to 76 and 16 to 17gm per Kg of husk material (Jayasankar. 1966 and
Bhat 1969), the polyphenols getting constantly leached out. A positive
correlation has also been found to exist between the progress ofthe extent of
retting and the rate of disappearance of these compounds. The pectinolytic
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