Course Title: Economic Botany & Medicinal Plants

Course Code: BOTN 4155

Dr. Aasma Tufail 1

Assistant Professor
Department of Botany, Division of Science & Technology, University of Education,
Lahore
The most common
natural plant fibers
are-
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 Cotton Coconut

Silk Cotton sumbal tree

Jute

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Flax
Hemp
 Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)
Malvaceae
• Fiber type: Natural, Cellulose fiber, seed fiber, hard fiber, filling , hair
• Characteristics: Soft, Lightweight, Absorbent
• Typically used in: T shirt, Undergarment, Tent, Sock, Towel, filling,
stuffing
• Commonly available in: United
States, China, India, Australia, Brazil, Uzbekistan
• Brand names: Pima cotton, Egyptian cotton, Cotton Lisle, Supima
cotton
• Length: 1 – 6 cm

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 Early History of Cotton Use
• Cotton was one of the first fiber plants to be domesticated by humans.
• its use originated in two different parts of the world with at least 4
different species being regularly used.
• Cotton was harvested from the wild in coastal areas of Peru about
10,000 YA and was domesticated there by 4500 YA – from there its use
spread and it was grown and used by native peoples in the American
Southwest.

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 More Cotton History
o Cotton was especially well developed by Muslim peoples in the Near
East in the 9th and 10th Centuries and the term muslin for a fine
cotton cloth reflects that history
o It was the most important crop in the southern American colonies
o Cotton was at first a minor source of cloth in Europe until the 18th
century when Peruvian varieties were introduced
o they had longer seed hairs which allowed for better spinning into
cloth
o Major cotton producing countries are China, US, India, Pakistan,
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former Soviet nations
 Cotton spinning
• Spinning is the twisting techniques where the fiber is drawn
out, twisted, and wound onto a bobbin.

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 Cotton Species
• The old world cotton

• The new world cotton

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 Old World cotton
• In the Old World cotton cloth has been dated back 5000 YA.
• Firstly was introduced to Florida in 1556 and it was grown in Virginia beginning in
1607 – within 100 years
• it was first grown on the Indian subcontinent and its use spread westward to
Assyria, Babylonia, Persia (modern day Iraq and Iran) and then to Greece and
Rome (although Greeks and Romans preferred to use linen)

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 Old World cotton cont.
• The old world cottons are diploid species that produce short
fibers
• – G. herbaceum appears to have come from southern Africa
and gave rise to G. arboretum in India;

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Gossypium herbaceum Gossypium arboreum

 New world cotton
Upland cotton

• The new world cottons are tetraploids that produce long fibers – they may
have arisen as a cross between G. herbaceum and G. raimondii from Peru.

• G. hirsutum is the mostly commonly grown cotton in the world. it is often

known as upland cotton and probably arose in Central America or Mexico;

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Gossypium hirsutum
 New world cotton
Sea island cotton

• Gossypium barbadense originated in the Andes of Peru

and is the oldest used form of cotton
• also known as extra-long staple cotton,

• fibers longer than 34 millimetres which are associated with

high quality cotton cloth.

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Harvest and post harvest methods

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Cotton Boll – Ready to Harvest

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Traditional Cotton Harvest

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Modern Cotton Harvest

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Cotton Modules

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 Cotton Gin
• A cotton gin – meaning "cotton engine" – is a machine that
quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds,
enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton
separation.

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Cotton Gin

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Cotton Gin

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Cotton Production world wide 2018-19
(in 1,000 metric tons)

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Cotton production areas of Pakistan

• Cotton is grown mostly in the two provinces of Punjab and

Sindh, with the former accounting for 79% and the latter for
20% of the nation's cotton growing land.

• It is also grown in Khyber Pakhtoon Khawah (KPK) and

Balochistan provinces.

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Cotton uses

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Sumbal (Bombax ceiba)
Silk cotton

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 Sumbal (Bombax ceiba)
Silk cotton
• Sumbal like other trees of the genus Bombax, is commonly known
as cotton tree.

• More specifically, it is sometimes known as red silk-cotton, red

cotton tree; or ambiguously as silk-cotton or kapok, both of which
may also refer to Ceiba pentandra.

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 Silk cotton
• Silk cotton is a type of native cotton.
• Silk cotton is found in India, tropical southern Asia, northern
Australia and tropical Africa.
• The fruit, the size of a ping-pong ball, on maturity appears
during March and April.
• These are full of cotton-like fibrous stuff that are silk cotton
fibers .
• It is for the fiber that villagers gather the semul fruit and
extract the silk cotton substance called "kapok". 26
 Silk cotton fiber

Stubble silk weaving 27

 Silk cotton properties
• Silk cotton fabric is a blend of both fibers, combining
positive characteristics of each into a single textile.

• A lightweight, silky and comfortable weave, silk cotton

fabric has a soft hand-feel and sturdy, silken drape, along
with a versatility that makes it suitable for an extended
variety of garment uses.

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 Uses of Silk cotton
• Silk cotton used to make-Silk cotton used to make- towels
towels etc
• This fiber is used for filling economically priced pillows, quilts,
sofas etc.

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 References
• Economic botany : principles and practices / edited by Gerald

E. Wickens. © 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New

York Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in

2001, ISBN 978-1-4020-2228-9.

• Kochhar, S. L. (2016). Economic botany. Cambridge

University Press.

• Pandey, B. P. (1978). Economic Botany: For Degree, Honours

and Post-graduate Students. S. Chand & Company.

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Thank you

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