Keywords: Bioconversion, water-hyacinth, solid-state fermentation, Pleurotus sajor-caju, animal feed Pretreatment of substrates 500 g of untreated water-hyacinth was soaked with a calcium carbonate solution (2.67 g CaCO3/L DH2O). The substrates were left in soaking condition overnight. Then the lime solution was drained out by tap water. Treated substrates were then spread over aluminum foils and allowed to dry overnight at 60⁰C. This study was undertaken to improve nutritional values and

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... ibility of water-hyacinth by solid-state fermentation with a white rot fungi, Pleurotus sajor-caju. At the end of 56 days fermentation of CaCO3 treated water-hyacinth, significant (p<0.05) changes of crude protein, lipid, carbohydrate, ash, lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose, cellulose-lignin ratio and reducing sugar contents were detected. Crude protein, ash, cellulose-lignin ratio and reducing sugar contents were increased by 685, 47, 106 and 680%, respectively. In contrary, crude fiber, lipid, carbohydrate, lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses contents were decreased by 36.8, 72, 19, 72.33, 37.5 and 4.57%, respectively. Ascorbic acid and carotenoid were increased by 42.9 and 122.8%, respectively. At 49 days of fermentation, the crude water-hyacinth extract showed very high CMCase, avicelase and amylase, moderate cellobiase and very poor pectinase and xylanase activities. In-vitro dry matter digestibility was also increased by 76%. The study concluded with the finding that P. sajor-caju has the potential for efficient degradation of water-hyacinth to convert the lignocellulosic wastes into nutritionally improved animal feed. ARTICLE INFO