Chemical Composition of Cotton Dusts

Abstract

Cotton plant parts are thought to be a major source of dust generated during cotton processing. Their chemical composition is important with regards to identifying the causal agents of byssinosis. Reported here are the ash and protein contents of cotton bract, leaf, stem, burr, and gin trash samples and of their dried aqueous extracts. The average ash contents of the above samples are 18.0, 16.6, 7.2, 7.5, and 19.1%, respectively. Significantly, the average inorganic contents of dried aqueous extracts are from two to five times higher than those of the raw samples.. The average protein contents of the above samples are 12.5, 17.4, 8.6, 5.7, and 13.6%, respectively. The average protein contents of the dried aqueous extracts of bract, leaf, and gin trash samples are about the same as the raw samples. The protein of the dried aqueous extracts of stem and burr increases markedly compared to the raw samples (from 8.6 to 21.3% and 5.7 to 15.5%, respectively). Ash and protein contents of several weed samples have been analyzed, and their extracts are approximately the same as stem and burr samples. The fraction of each sample that is extractable by water is about the same ( ca. 13%) for all plant parts, gin trash samples, and weed samples investigated in this study.