Cottonseed and Cottonseed Products Their Chemistry and Chemical Technology

Abstract

THE cultivation of cotton in quantity in the United States did not commence until towards the end of the eighteenth century ; but the cotton fibres only were utilized for many years, the rest of the cotton seed not being recognized to have any, except perhaps manurial, value. Although so early as about 1830 crushing of the seed was commenced in a small way, it was not until after the American Civil War that the value of the cotton seed was more fully appreciated, and that its conversion into cottonseed oil and cotton-seed cake was undertaken on an increasingly large scale. From 1910 onwards, however, cotton-seed crushing became one of the major industries in the United States. Frequently, the quantity of cotton seed crushed annually exceeded 5,000,000 tons, the corresponding value of the products (oil and residual cake) usually being more than 200,000,000 dollars. The annual production of cotton-seed oil was 700,000–900,000 tons, and of cotton-seed cake and meal 2,000,000–2,500,000 tons. The cake is valued as an animal feeding-stuff and is also used as a fertilizer, while the oil is used both as salad oil, in margarine and in cooking fats (lard substitute) either in its original state or after ‘hardening' by partial hydrogenation, and as one of the raw materials for soap-making. Cottonseed and Cottonseed Products Their Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Edited by Alton E. Bailey. (Fats and Oils, a Series of Monographs on the Chemistry and Technology of Fats, Oils and related Substances.) Pp. xxiii + 936. (New York and London: Interscience Publishers, Ltd., 1948.) £5 5s.