Fiber yeilding plants : Cotton, Jute & Flax

This powerpoint presentation gives knowledge about fiber yeilding plants namely, cotton, jute and flax. Also Gives details about their origin and the processing techniques.

1. FIBER YEILDING PLANTS By Anjali Kalia

2. Classification Of Fibers On The Basis Of Nature And Structure Bast Fibers Structural Fibers Surface Fibers Associated with Phloem, Pericycle and cortex. Strands of small, short lignified cells ensheathing both Xylem and Phloem. Borne on the surface of Stems, Leaves, Fruits and Seeds. Derived from dicotyledonous plants. Found scattered in the leaves of monocotyledonous plants. Obtained from a great diversity of plants. Usually separated by ‘Retting’ Separated by mechanical scraping. Separation done by Ginning. Examples- Flax, Jute, Hemp, Kenaf etc. Examples-Manila hemp, Sisal, New Zealand hemp. Example-Cotton, Kapok.

3. Gossypium spp .

4. Gossypium spp. It is world’s most important non-food agricultural commodity. It was one of the first vegetable fibers used for textile purposes. The fiber is obtained from the surface of the seeds. The production of cotton is greater than that of all other fibers put together. Cotton has been under cultivation since ancient times in two widely separated continents: South Asia Central America Family: Malvaceae

5. Excavations in Mohanjo-Daro (Indus Valley) by Gulati and Turner (1928) revealed the occurrence of cotton in the form of strings and fragment of cloth covering the household articles, which archaeologists date to about 3000 B.C. The existence of cotton threads has also been mentioned in the Rig Veda (Oldest scripture of the Hindus, written about 1500 B.C.). From India cotton was introduced eastward to China and westward to Egypt around 600 A.D. Arabs introduced it to the African continent and later on, it was introduced to Europe.

6. Systematics, Origin And Distribution Hutchinson et al. (1947) recognized 20 species of the genus Gossypium. The different species are grouped into 8 sections, of which 2 are commercially important. All wild species of cotton are diploid with n=13 chromosomes. There are 16 Wild species and 4 cultivated species of cotton. The four cultivated species have large no. of varieties and hybrid forms and can be classified as: The American or New World cottons The Asiatic or Old World cottons

7. The New World cotton is represented by G. hirsutum and G. barbadense . T HE Old World cotton is represented by G. arboreum and G. herbaceum . S pecies of these two sections are genetically distinct and do not form natural hybrids. The cultivated Asiatic forms of section Herbacea have 13 pairs of large chromosomes and are designated by genome A. These have never been reported growing in New World. The species includes in section Klotzchiana are also diploid but contain 13 pairs of small chromosomes, designated by genome D .These are distributed only in the New World.

8. Tetraploid cottons of section Hirsuta , have 26 pair of chromosomes, of which 13 pairs are large (similar to Old World cotton with genome A) and 13 are small (similar to New World cotton with genome D). On the basis of this information , it is believed that the tetraploid cottons of section Hirsuta have evolved through accidental hybridization between Asiatic diploids and American diploids, followed by doubling of chromosome number.

9. Species Common name Place of Origin Chromosome no. Distribution/Grown G. arboreum Ceylon Cotton Old World (Indo-China) 13 India, Myanmar, Malaysia, China, Korea, Japan and extending too Africa. G. herbaceum Levant Cotton Old World (tropical Africa & Egypt) 13 China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Greece, Africa. G. barbadense Sea-Island Cotton New World (South America) 26 West Indies, Fiji, North Florida, Georgia and southern California. G. hirsutum Upland Cotton New World (Mexico &Central America) 26 Turkestan, South Brazil, Uganda, Africa, Iraq , parts of China, Turkey, Greece, Manchuria, India, Australia.

10. Harvesting begins about six months after sowing and it the most expensive operation of cotton cultivation . Cotton is picked as soon as the ball opens. Handpicking is done in many parts of the world where cheap labor is easily available. In western sub-humid parts of the world where labor is very scarce, mechanical harvesters which work on the principle of suction as used. For successful harvesting, it is necessary to defoliate plants by spraying chemicals such as calcium cynamide, which also forces all capsules to ripens simultaneously. Harvesting

11. Processing Before raw cotton is spun into yarn and woven into cloth, it must pass through a number of processes. Ginning After the removal of dirt, boll and leaf fragments, and other foreign matter, the raw cotton is conveyed to the hopper of a gin of either roller or saw type. Roller type gin is employed to Sea-Island and Egyptian cottons, whereas Saw type gin is used for American upland and Asiatic cottons. Baling: fiber that comes after ginning is pressed hydraulically into bales of 500 pounds (226kg).

12. Picking Baled cotton is at first broken and the fibers are then passed through a ‘scutcher’ where they are beaten, shaken and rolled to remove all foreign matter and the strands are separated and delivered in a uniform layer. At the last picking machine, the cotton is condensed into a sheet form called ‘lap’. Carding It helps to place the fibers parallel and also helps in removal of immature fibers and impurities. Combing and drawing or drafting Short fibers are removed during combing, and during drawing process fibers are straightened and aligned. It is customary to apply two drawing operations after carding and two after combing. The fleecy lap is condensed through a funnel into a soft twisted rope or ‘silver’. It is further drawn out, slightly twisted and wound on spools.

13. Corchorus spp. (Jute) Family: Tiliaceae Jute is the least expensive, but most important of all bast fibers. It comes second in production among all the natural fibers. The fiber is obtained from the stems of the two cultivated species of Corchorus , namely C. capsularis L. (White Jute) and C. oliotorius ( Tossa Jute). The early history of jute is not definitely known . The genus Corchorus consists of about 40 species, of which 36 have been recorded in Africa. According to Kundu (1959) , the primary center of origin of C. oliorius is Africa with a secondary center in India or Indo-Burma. At one time in it was monopoly crop of India which produced 99 percent of the world’s production.

14. JUTE PLANTATION

15. Plants are harvested when nearly 50 percent of them are fruiting. At this stage both the yield and quality are good. Early harvesting is likely to give a poor and return and the fiber lacks strength, although it has a good white color. Late harvesting on the other hand increases yield but produces coarse fibers. Plants are close to the ground with a sickle or pulled out by hand when growing under water. In flooded areas particularly in many parts of Assam and Bangladesh where the flood water rises very high, the cutters often have to dive under water to cut the stem.

16. Location of fibers The fibers occur in long wedge-shaped bundles outside the xylem. They are grouped in concentric rings alternating with the thin walled tissue of the phloem which disintegrates during retting. Each of the fiber bundles represents one strand (reed). The individual fiber cells are seldom longer than 2 or 3 mm.

17. Processing The bundles of stems are taken to the nearest stagnant pool or ditch and laid flat in waters arranged side by side so as to make a regular platform. Another layer of bundles is placed on top at right angles to the first. A third or fourth layer of bundles may sometimes be added if the water is deep. The surface of the bundles is covered with weeds and then heavily loaded with stones, bricks, logs of wood etc. to keep them submerged. The retting process usually takes 10-30 days.

18. At first the root ends are beaten with wooden mallet to loosen the fibers. Retting is considered complete when the bark can be easily peeled off. Then the free ends are wrapped firmly around the fingers and stems are jerked backward and forward in water thereby separating the fibers from the stick. They are spread out in the sun on bamboo racks for two to three days and rolled into bundles.

19. Linum usitatissimum (Flax) Family: Linaceae Flax is one of the oldest cultivated plants known to mankind. The place of origin of Flax is not known, but it has been cultivated since prehistoric times in two main geographical areas- The coastal land of the Mediterranean & Southwest Asia. The best quality Flax comes from Belgium and other adjoining countries with a damp sea climate such as Netherlands and France. Flax is an annual plant with a slender stem, greyish green in color, bearing alternatively placed small ovate or lanceolate leaves.

20. FLAX PLANT

21. Harvesting The harvesting operation is done when the lower two-thirds of the stem have turned yellow and the leaves have fallen off. Unlike other fiber crops, flax plants are pulled from the field instead of being cut. The fibers occur in discreate groups or aggregates of many cell in the pericycle, each pericycle consisting of ten to forty individual fibers. The number of such fibrous bundles is about 30, arranged in a circular ring around the vascular zone .

22. Processing The harvested plants are generally left in the field to dry for 2-3 days. The process of extracting the fibers involves four steps: rippling, steeping or ‘retting’, scutching and hackling . Rippling - dried Flax is stripped of all leaves and capsules with least possible damage to the stem and fiber. Retting -denuded stems are immersed in a water tank for several days. The retted stems are then dried either by artificial means or by spreading it in the field to prevent further fermentation. Scutching -Fibers are removed from the internal woody core. Hackling -the short and tangled fibers constituting the ‘tow’ are separated from the long fibers with the help of hackling machines. The long unbroken fibers are called line fibers.

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