###### Abstract  
A degumming approach is used in this paper with alkaliophilic pectinase-producing bacteria (APPB) and two sources of water solvents to address the existing conventional water retting complexities of kenaf. The incorporation of APPB was confirmed based on their retting feasibilities and multiple cell-wall-degrading enzymatic delicacy. The combinations of APPB with seawater offered retting achievements within six-day retting in non-sterile conditions. These retting niches showed maximum (14.67 U/mL) pectinase activity with fiber separation feasibilities of 4.75 Fried test score. The yielded fiber composition analysis showed a higher cellulose composition (84.65%) and the least amount of hemicellulose, pectin, and ligneous gummy substances. The transmission electron microscopy scan of the yielded fibers showed smooth fiber surfaces, 84.20 um fiber diameter, and 7.65 g/tex fine fiber compared with uninoculated and combinations of freshwater treatments. The FTIR spectra revealed the cellulose discrepancies of the retting treatments by monitoring O-H and C=O stretching at -3300 cm\({}^{-1}\) and -1730 cm\({}^{-1}\) wavenumbers. These findings are compelling to yield kenaf fibers of quality considering the existing retting difficulties. kenaf last fiber; augmented water retting; alkaliophilic pectinolytic bacteria; retting solvents +
Footnote †: journal: Applied sciences  
invade the cell walls. The process is favored over other degumming processes for managing a vast volume of plant materials at a low cost and without chemical treatments. It does not alter the basic fiber structures and can yield fibers with less or minimum processing during the product manufacturing steps [3,5]. Despite these feasibilities, the process is challenged by an inability to yield consistent quality fibers, freshwater scarcity, and eutrophication-related complexities. The process requires 20 to 25 volumes of water to biomass; typically, 10,000 kg of plant substrate requires approximately 432 m\({}^{3}\) of water. Currently, this water is obtained from freshwater sources and after retting, it is discharged into aquatic ecosystems [6, 7, 8]. The scarcity of natural freshwater bodies for retting solvents severely affects the sustainability of its degumming process. Due to socio-economic and agro-climatic changes, the consequence of this scarcity tends to worsen. In addition, eutrophication and pungent odors are associated with this process as more than thirty types of plant organic compounds are directly dispersed to aquatic ecosystems [9, 10, 11]. The scarcity of freshwater retting niches leads to placing huge bast material in the same niche or compensating by reducing the cultivation portfolio. The used effluents accelerate oxygen depletion and cause threats to aquatic flora and fauna. The scope of other sources of water, such as seawater, as retting solvents have been demonstrated to be as viable as freshwater [12,13]. However, the inoculations of specific microbes into seawater to enhance the degumming process have not been reported. Kenaf fibers are incompatible in several value-added commodity preparations since it has been challenging to obtain consistent quality fibers through the CVR process. This inconsistence in fiber quality is associated with the low metabolic activity of the microbial mixture. Such co-existence of microbial compositions releases intermediate-level enzymes, which linger in the process and yield inconsistent quality fibers [14,15]. In contrast, inadequate degumming affects the overall chemical compositions, and yields low-quality fibers that do not possess adequate economic value [16,17]. Water retting is primarily a macro-microbial process, predominantly accomplished with specific bacterial enzymes and solvent-derived macroation [18, 19, 20, 21]. Naturally occurring microbiota produce the desired enzymes, and the rest act as non-producers [22].