STUDIES ON THE GROWING PROCESS OF CELLULOSE FIBER

Abstract

In order to elucidate the mechanism of cellulose formation, it is necessary to make clear the chemical constituents in lint cell. As the first step, the reducing sugar and cellulose contents in lint cell during the gorwing process of cotton fiber were daily measured. For the measurement of reducing sugar, the modified Schaffer-Somogy's methord was adopted. The cotton variety used for this research was “Rikuchimen Kanno No.I”, a sort of upland cotton.1) During the period of rapid cell wall elongation, (1 to 20 days after flowering) the reducing sugar component was high compared with the mass of the crude fiber, but progressively decreased during cell wall thickening, “secondary wall formation”, until maturity war complete. But cellulose was synthesized and deposited in lint on the same rate during secondary wall formation.2) Qualitative tests of the reducing sugar in various stage of development showed the presence of glucose, fructose and pentoses.3) The mechanism of carbohydrate metabolism in lint cell is not evident, but some discussion was made concerning the formation of cellulose from these experimental results.