This slide includes the detail study of Fibres (Biologicalsource, chemical constituents, method of preparation, uses) used in pharmacy

1. FIBRES (Cotton, Jute, Hemp)
Prepared By:
Sujata
Assistant Professor

2. Fibers may be defined as any hair-like raw
material directly obtainable from an animal,
vegetable, or mineral source and convertible into
nonwoven fabrics such as paper or, after spinning
into yarns, into woven cloth.
CLASSIFICATION AND PROPERTIES: Natural fibers
can be classified according to their origin.
1. The vegetable, or cellulose-base, class includes
such important fibers as cotton, flax, and jute.
2. The animal, or protein-base, fibers include
wool, mohair, and silk.

3. 3. Regenerated and synthetic fibers include
Nylon, Terylene, Orlon, Viscose, Alginate fibers,
etc.
4. An important fiber in the mineral class is
asbestos.
The vegetable fibers can be divided into smaller
groups, based on their origin within the plant.
Cotton, kapok, and coir are examples. Chemically,
all vegetable fibers consist mainly of cellulose.

4. • The animal fibers consist exclusively of proteins
and, with the exception of silk.

5. 1. COTTON
• Synonyms: Raw cotton, purified cotton,
absorbent cotton
• Biological Source: It consists of the seeds of
the cultivated species of the Gossypium
herbaceum and other species of Gossypium (G.
hirsutum, G. barbadense) belonging to family
Malvaceae.
• Geographical Source: United States, Egypt,
some parts of Africa, and India

6. HISTORY:
1. Gossypium herbaceum or the African-West Asian
cotton:
- Gossypium herbaceum is the indigenous species in India.
- It is widely cultivated in, Afghanistan. Turkey, North Africa,
Spain, Ukraine, Turkestan, and China
- Height is 2–6 feet
- It requires warm weather to ripen its seeds.
2. Gossypium arboreum or the Pakistani-Indian cotton:
- It is native to Northwest India and Pakistan and first
produced and used by the Harappan civilization of the Indus
Valley.

7. 3. Gossypium barbadense or South American
cotton: It gives the long-stapled cotton.
4. Gossypium hirsutum or Mexican cotton:
• - G. hirsutum are found in coastal vegetation of
Central and Southern North America and also in
the West Indies.

8. CULTIVATION, COLLECTION, AND PREPARATION:
1. Cotton is cultivated by means of seed sowing method.
2. The seeds are sown in rows of about 4–5 feet in
distance.
3. fertilizers are provided timely.
4. The capsule consists of three to five seeds and is covered
with hairs. The bolls are collected when ripe, separated
from the capsule, dried, and subjected to the ginning press
for processing.
5. the trichomes are separated from the seeds by ginning
process.
6. Short hairs are used in the manufacturing inferior grade
cotton wool, whereas long hairs are used for preparation of
cloth

9. 7. The seeds remain after the removal of hair is
used for the preparation of cotton seed oil
8. The raw cotton so obtained is full of impurities
like the coloring matter and fatty material.
9. further purification is done by treating it with
dilute soda ash solution under pressure for about
15 hours.
10. It is then bleached and washed properly,
dried, and packed. The packed cotton is then
sterilized using radiations.

10. DESCRIPTION:
1. Color- White
2. Odor - Odorless
3. Taste - Tasteless
4. Shape- fine filaments like that of hair, which are
soft and unicellular.
5. Size – length-2.2–4.6 cm and diameter-20–35
micron

11. CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS:
1. It consists of 90% of cellulose, 7–8% of
moisture, wax, fat and oil 0.5% and cell content
about 0.5%.
2. Purified cotton has almost cellulose and 6–7%
of moisture.

12. USES:
1. Cotton is used as a filtering medium and in
surgical dressings.
2. Absorbent cotton absorbs blood, pus, mucus,
and prevents infections in wounds

13. 2.JUTE
Synonym : Gunny.
Biological Source: It consists of phloem fibers from
the stem of
• - Corchorus capsularis Linn
• - C. olitorius Linn
• - C. cunninghamii
• - C. junodi
• Family- Tiliaceae.
GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCE: West Bengal and Assam.

14. • HISTORY:
1. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions
throughout the world.
2. the chief sources of commercial jute are two
Indian species the C. capsularis and C. olitorius.
These species are grown in Ganges and
Brahmaputra valleys.
3. Pakistan was the world’s lead jute producer.
4. Jute was called the ‘Golden fibre’ of
Bangladesh because it brought the major portion
of the foreign currency for the country.

15. DESCRIPTION:
1. They are tall, usually annual herbs,
2. Height is 2–4 m
3. The leaves are alternate, simple, lanceolate,
4. The flowers are small (1.5–3 cm in diameter)
and yellow, with five petals; the fruit encloses
many seeds in the capsule.

16. PREPARATION:
1. Retting is the process for the preparation of bast fibres.
2. This process is done by three methods, i.e. , microbial (or
water), steam, and mechanical process.
3. The microbial or water retting process is the oldest and
the popular method employed for the breaking of lignin
bond present between parenchyma and sclerenchyma.
4. The breaking of this bond facilitates the easy
procurement of skin from its core. the material is washed
dried to release pectin bond which makes the hard skin to
fine thread like fibres.
5. The jute fibres are graded according to its colour,
strength and fibre length
6. The fibres are of white to brown and 1–4 m. long.

17. CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS:
• 12–13%, fats, wax, and ash
• Cellulose (50–53%)
• hemicellulose (20%)
• lignin (10–11%)
• cellulose and lignin (main constituents)

18. USES:
• 1. Jute is used chiefly to make cloth for
wrapping bales of raw cotton, in the
preparation of sacks and coarse cloth.
• 2. They are also woven into curtains, chair
coverings, carpets, also in the making of paper.
• 3. It is even used in the manufacture of tows,
padding splints, filtering, and straining medium.
• 4. Jute is used for the preparation of coarse
bags

19. 3. HEMP
• Biological Source: Hemp is the pericyclic fibre
obtained from Cannabis sativa Linn., belonging
to family Cannabinaceae.
• GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCE: Hemp is grown at any
altitude from Norway to the Equator. The raw
materials are imported from China, Hungary,
America, Germany, Switzerland, Australia,
Canada, France, and Norway.

20. HISTORY:
• 1. Cannabis sativa was grouped under taxable goods.
• 2. Traditionally, Hemp was processed by hand, which
required huge labour and was costly.
• 3. Later a new machine for separating the fibre from the
internal woody core (‘Hurds’) reduced labour costs.
• 4. the production of Cannabis sativa was restricted
except for industrial use or research purpose.Its
production was categorized as illegal for all purpose.
• 5. the first licenses were granted for growing Hemp of
the low THC varieties (THC is the narcotic substance
found in the leaves) under the ruling that Hemp is grown
for ‘special purposes’ or ‘in the public interest’.

21. CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS: Hemp mainly consists
of THC, Cannabinoids and cellulose and lignin.
USES:
1. The historically mentioned uses are printing
inks, paints, varnishes, paper, bank notes, food,
textiles (the original Levi’s jeans were made from
Hemp cloth), canvas and building materials.
2. Due to its high tensile strength, bast fibres are
ideal for such specialized paper products as: tea
bags, industrial filters, currency paper, or cigarette
paper.