Table 1.

Mechanical properties of silk fibers treated by two degumming methods (n = 20).

Sample	Breaking Stress (cN/dtex)	Breaking Strain (%)	Young’s Modulus (cN/dtex)
Non-degummed silk	3.4 ± 0.3	25.2 ± 4.7	0.8 ± 0.1
3.0 g/L papain-silk	2.7 ± 0.2 **	16.5 ± 2.2 *	0.7 ± 0.1 *
0.5 g/L Na2CO3-silk	1.5 ± 0.2	8.7 ± 2.2	0.4 ± 0.1

*, ** Indicates significant differences compared with Na₂CO₃-Silk at p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively.