A New Method for Reducing the Stickiness of Cotton

Abstract

Cottons contaminated with honeydew cannot be spun under normal conditions, and several methods such as washing, blending, spraying with yeast and, of late, applying a hydrocarbon and a surfactant have been used to reduce stickiness. Only the latter two methods have shown some encouraging results with few disadvantages. Spraying sticky cottons with Beijerinckia mobilis, a free living nitrogen-fixing bacterium, offers several advantages over the other methods apart from significantly reducing stickiness.