1. WELCOME
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A SEMINAR ON
“Natural Fibers”
Presented by
MAHARUDRA S. RAKH
M. PHARM ., M.B.A
E- mail:
PHARMACOGNOSY
First year

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“Natural Fibers”
Cotton
Silk
Wool
Jute
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Defination:
The fibres are elongated thick walled cells with pointed ends, cell walls of which consist of cellulose and may or may not contain lignin.
fibres of vegetable origin are poly-saccharide substances and animal fibres are proteinous in nature.
In medical practice, they are used as surgical dressings made up of natural or artificial materials.  
Applicartions;-
for mfg. of tows, clothing, gunny-bags
for mfg. filtering media and insulation
as pharmaceutical aids for surgical dressing

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Natural fibres may be of vegetable, animal or mineral origin.
Apart from these three natural sources, fibres are now synthesised chemically from various materials.
Fibres obtained from various sources can be categorised as follows
Plant fibres- Jute, silk, flax, banana, cotton, hemp
Animal fibres- Silk, wool
Regenerated and Synthetic fibres
Fibres regenerated from carbohydrate materials- Alginate yarn, artificial silk or rayon or regenerated cellulose
Fibres regenerated from protein materials - Aridil from groundnut protein and fibrolin from milk casein
Synthetic- Nylon, terylene, orlon
Mineral fibres- Glass, asbestos
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Various chemical tests can be applied for the identification of fibres but microscopical examinatoin is the main one
Commercially, fibres are used in the textile industry for weaving the cloth, as filtering medium, also for insulation purpose.
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Synonyms
Raw cotton,
Cotton wool,
Purified cotton, Absorbent cotton
Cotton
Biological Source Cotton consists of the epidermal trichomes or hairs of the seeds of cultivated species of Gossypium barbadense Linn, G herbaceum belonging to family Malvaceae. Geographical Source Cotton is indigenous to the West Indies. Also produced in India, USA, Egypt and South America. USA produces about half of the world supply. Characteristics It is a white, soft mass of loose delicate fibres.
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Cultivation and Collection:
Cotton is mostly cultivated in the river valleys of the Mississippi, Nile, Indus and Ganga.
Plant herbaceous shrub or woody small tree
which is perennial, but generally cultivated annual crop
propagated from seeds.
capsular fruits of cotton called 'bolls' take about two months to ripen after the wilting of flowers
capsular fruits are 3 to 5 celled and contain numerous seeds
It dehisces and exposes the seeds with white epidermal hair. The seeds with the fibres are technically known as cotton.
short fibre waste such as card strips, card fly and combers waste are used for the production of absorbent cotton wool.
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Chemical test
Moisten cotton fibres with N/15 iodine solution, dry and add 80 per cent sulphuric acid, a blue colour is developed.
Chemical Constituents
Absorbent cotton wool is almost pure cellulose,
while raw cotton contains about 90 % of cellulose. Cotton wool shows 6 to 7 % moisture content and
% ash value.
Uses
Absorbent cotton wool used as an important material for surgical dressings in variety of forms.
also used as a filtering medium and an insulating material.
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Wool
Synonyms
Animal wool,
Sheep wool
Biological Source
It obtained from wool
of the sheep Ovis arries Linn.
family Bovidae
Geographical Source
Australia, U.S.A.,
Russia, Argentina, India.
Extra Features
loose, soft, lustrous mass of hair
hygroscopic and absorbs % of water
soluble in 5 % KOH solution after warming
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Chemical Constituents
made up of protein keratin.
Keratin found in two varietie
i.e. unstable p-keratin and
stable a-keratin.
trace amount of sulphur containing amino acid, cystine.
Uses
animal wool used as a filtering and straining agent
also used in crepe bandages, flannel and domette.
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Silk
Synonym
Silk
Biological Source
Silk fibres are produced from cocoons of Bombyx mori, family Bombycidae order Lepidoptera
Geographical Source
In China, India, Japan, Italy and France
Characteristics
very fine, soft, smooth and yellowish.
considerable tensile strength and elasticity.
hygroscopic and soluble in cuoxam solution.
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Cultivation and Collection:
The eggs of silkworms are hatched by enveloping them with fine gauze at 0°.
After hatching, the grubs creep out of the gauze and start feeding on young mulberry leaves placed on the envelopes.
In a period of about a month, they are fully grown and moult their skin four times and ultimately attain about 4 cm length which further reaches to 7.5 to 9 cm by feeding on large amount of mulberry leaves.

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In the last stage, they spin cocoons in a period of three days
The oval shaped cocoons are collected and placed in water to loosen the adhering gum.
The ends of the silk threads from 2 to 6 cocoons are picked up and made into a single thread
Chemical Constituents
mainly contain protein fibroin as fibrous mass.  
Uses
used for the manufacture of ligatures and oiled silk
also useful in making special sieves for filtration

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Jute
Synonyms
Jute, Gunny
Biological Source
Jute fibres consist of the long strands of phloem fibres obtained from the stems of Corchorus olitorius and C. capsularis Linn., family Tiliaceae
Geographical Source
Chiefly in India (Bengal), Bangladesh
Characteristics
Colour - yellowish to greyish
Texture - coarse with considerable strength
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Cultiv. and Collec.:
Jute plant is
erect herb that grows to about 2 to 3 meters.
plant propagated from seeds and the straight stem is cut off at the stage of flowering.
After removing leaves, stems are made into bundles and submerged in a pool of water for about 3 weeks for retting.
Retting process facilitates the separation of phloem fibres.
The fibres are removed generally from the thicker end of the stem as a continuous strand upto another end.
The fibres are cleaned of the debris in water and dried by hanging in open.
It is graded according to colour and length.

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Chemical Constituents
composed of Hgnocellulose
contains about cellulose (53 %), hemicellulose (22 %) and lignin (11 %)
also content moisture 12 to 13 % with traces of fats and waxes 
Uses
used for the mfg. of medicated tow
as a filtering medium
made into sacks
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Thank u!
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