Abstract: This paper attempts to adopt enzymatic approach to remove the skin crumbs from cashmere, since the skin crumb is a long-standing problem not fundamentally solvedover the years in cashmere dyeing. Three biological enzymes-cutinase, pepsin and protease were sdlected and applied to the treatment of skin crumbs searately.The effect of skin crumbs removal was investigated and the individual process conditions were examined. The fiber damages of the cashmere before and after treatment were compared. The results showed that the skin crumbs removal rate reached 29% when T. fuscacutinase was used in the treatment of skin crumbs under the conditions: amount of T. fuscacutinase 8 mL/g, pH=8.0 , temperature 60°C , time 5 h ,and liquor ratio 1:50 .The removal rate was 17% in the case of pepsin under the conditions: pH=2.2, temperature 4 °C ,amount of pepsin 6% (o.w.f), time 6 h, and liquou ratio 1:50. And the removal rate was up to 46% in the case of protease Savinase 16 L under the conditions: amount of Savinase 16 L, 1 mL/g, pH=8.5, temperature 45°C, time 4 h, and liquor ratio 1:50. The experimental results revealed that cutinase and pepsin caused only slight damage to the treated fiber whereas protease led to serious fiber damage. Therefore, the former two kinds of enzymes may be used in the treatment of cashmere for removing skin crumbs. The enzymatic method can partially remove the cashmere skin crumbs, so it is necessary to make further study.

Key words: cashmere, skin crumbs, cutinase, pepsin, protease