Textile industrial scouring processes are currently based on the use of chemical reagents that cause an important environmental impact. For some years, several research groups have focused on obtaining enzymes that can carry out the scouring task in an effective way, allowing at the same time a decrease of the industrial costs of water and energy associated with the process. As part of this effort, bioscouring of cotton using enzymes produced in Sclerotium rolfsii has been successfully carried out in the present study. Enzyme production was induced by glucose, glucose-pectin or cellulose, and in all cases the enzyme activity corresponded to polygalacturonase activity. The weight loss after bioscouring was more efficient with enzymes induced by pectin because these have a specific activity for removing pectin content from the cotton fiber. The effectiveness of the enzymatic scouring was equivalent or better than that achieved by the conventional alkaline process. © 2006, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.