AN ENZYMATIC PROCESS FOR REMOVAL OF STICKINESS OF HONEYDEW CONTAMINATED COTTONS

摘要

Stickiness of cotton caused by honeydew from insect secretions such as aphids and whiteflies is well known. The stickiness causes a lot of problems in the processing of cotton to yarn- especially in operations like high-speed carding- and leads to imperfections in the final yarn, apart from affecting machine productivity. The Tempanil process, which has been developed in India, is based on the available technical data on the nature and problems associated with honeydew-contaminated cottons. The process employs a combination of chemicals, which are essentially: I. Enzymes which selectively react with sugars present in honeydew II. Powerful wetting-out agents with mild antiseptic properties. The chemicals are capable of selectively decomposing the chemicals responsible for the stickiness of the Honeydew affected cotton into harmless reaction products. In selecting the various chemicals, care has been taken to see that they don’t in any way affect the properties of the fiber or interfere with the subsequent wet processing operations.