A highly porous alumina body was fabricated by heating a green clinker body consisting of platelets and yeast fungi as a pore forming agent. Four kinds of alumina platelets were used. When green clinker bodies of platelet aggregates (All) with 10 and 30 mass% of yeast fungi were heated at 1500 degrees C for 2 h, their porosities reached 72% and 78%, respectively. In contrast, when the green clinker bodies composed of platelets with an average size of 10 mu m and an aspect ratio of 25-30 (SERATH(1)), and 20 mass% of yeast fungi were heated at 1400 degrees C for 2 h, the porosity of the resultant porous alumina body was also approximately 72%. However, the room temperature thermal conductivities of the porous alumina bodies with 72% porosity derived from All and SERATH(1) were 0.86 and 0.50W m(-1) K-1, respectively. The decrease in the thermal conductivity of the porous alumina body produced from SERATH(1) is caused by the long path route for heat transfer. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.