Author
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Brushwood, Donald |
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Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 8/30/1996 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Sugars on raw cottons from either the natural growing process or insect contamination can affect textile processing at all manufacturing levels. High levels of natural or plant sugars on cotton can cause the accumulation of sticky matter on normal processing equipment, prompting interruptions to clean parts, hence loss of production efficiency. Insect sugars deposited in the form of highly concentrated sticky specks on the surface of cotton can make the cotton virtually impossible to process. The objectives of this work were to extract these sugars from the surface of raw cottons, measure their concentrations, indentify and quantitate individual sugars, and relate them to cotton stickiness potential. Non-insect contaminated cottons contain at least 10 known carbohydrates, the more abundant being glucose and fructose. The amount of individual carbohydrates present was found to be highly dependent upon growing area. Natural plant sugars normally do not exhibit stickiness potential at total sugar concentrations below 0.40 percent based on the weight of the lint. Insect contaminated raw cotton contain unique carbohydrates not found in uncontaminated cottons. Very positive relationships were found between total sugar content, insect sugar content, and cotton stickiness potential when a large number of whitefly infested cottons were examined. Technical Abstract: Sugar occurs on raw cottons through the natural growing process and outside contamination from insects. Normally, when concentrations of natural sugars are less than 0.40 percent based on the fiber weight, textile processing is not a problem. If plant sugars exceed the above number, and/or insect sugars are present, cotton is potentially sticky and can cause the buildup of sticky materials on machinery sometimes making processing virtually impossible. Work using anion high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has made it possible to analyze sugars extracted from the surface of cotton by separating individual carbohydrates. Characterizing and quantitating these sugars, determines their individual contributions to cotton stickiness as measured by the thermodetector. Insect contaminated cottons have been found to contain the sugars trehalulose and melezitose that are not found in natural plant sugars. Understanding the relationships between individual sugar concentrations, especially insect sugars, cotton stickiness, and total sugar content is important to developing intervention protocols to alleviate cotton stickiness in textile processing. |
