The potential of coconut flesh as a raw material for the production of extracellular laccase by the white-rot fungus Trametes hirsuta was investigated. A maximum laccase activity of 333,280 nkat/L was produced, which was increased by almost 3-fold (920,895 nkat/L) when copper sulphate (2 mM) was added into the culture medium. The degrading ability of the extracellular liquid produced under the above-mentioned conditions was also tested. For this, decolourization of the textile dye Lissamine Green B was carried out both in vitro and in vivo. The former led to a decolourization percentage between 42% and 66% in 12 h depending on the culture age, whereas the latter showed a percentage higher than 96% in 2.5h. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.