Journal of Biology, Agriculture and Healthcare www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-3208 (Paper) ISSN 2225-093X (Online) Vol 2, No.2, 2012 19 Production of Cellulose from Barley Husks as a Partial Ingredient of Formulated Diet for Tilapia Fingerlings Keri Alhadi Ighwela¹٭, Aziz Bin Ahmad 1 , A.B. Abol-Munafi 2 1. Faculty of Science & Technology, University Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia 2. Institute of Tropical Aquaculture, University Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia * E-mail of the corresponding author: Keri_Gwallah@Yahoo.com. Abstract Cellulose is the most abundant renewable polysaccharide on earth and it is widely used in many aspect and industries such as food industry, pharmaceutical, and many more. Due to the increasing demand in the market, studies and work to produce cellulose are still rapidly developing. In this study, barley husks was pretreated in hot water at 100°C and followed with liquid oxidation process with 30% H 2 O 2 at 60°C. Through the hot water treatment, cellulose in the barley husks was successfully recovered as glucuronic acid, saccharides, cellulose and thus leaving fats. Results obtained also show that after treatment, the barley husks is made up 66.00% cellulose. This cellulose can be used as source of the digestible carbohydrate in fish feed which can help in reducing the cost of feed production. Keywords: Barley husks, hot water treatment, liquid phase oxidation, cellulose 1. Introduction The current study was focused on the utilization of barley husk as a feedstock to produce a value-added product, namely cellulose .However, barley husk, a by-product of the barley germination. Barley is a valuable agricultural crop, grown in large quantities around the world (Nilan and Ullrich, 1993). The the barley husk amounts to 15–20% of the dry weight of the grain (Bhatty, 1993; Palmer and Bathgate, 1976). More than one third of the husks consist of celluloses (Höije et al., 2005). The cellulose can be separated by various extraction and isolation methods, and then utilized in a number of ways, such as pharmaceutical, and formulation of good quality diets .The aims of the present study was focused on the extraction and determination of cellulose from barley husks, (by- product of the barley germination) for the use of fish feed formulation, which can help in reducing the cost of feed production. 2. Material and methods 2.1. Raw material For this study, samples of barley seeds of varieties De-canter and Chariot. Where were harvested in 2010 were imported from Libya. The barley husks was washed, and then dried in an oven at constant temperature. Oil from barley husks was removed by using conventional Soxhlet extractor. The