ABSTRACT
Sugars occur on raw cottons through natural plant development or from honeydew contamination. Honeydew sugars (insect sugars) are more complex than the plant sugars and are generally randomly deposited on the lint in heavy specks. Cotton stickiness related to honeydew contamination has been a problem for cottons grown in certain western United States locations in the last two years. Whitefly infested cottons are identified by the presence of the sucrose isomer trehalulose. Aphid sugars and plant sugars do not contain trehalulose. Recent work using anion High Pressure Liquid Chromatography has made it possible to separate, characterize, and quantify the sugars in cotton. Identifying specific types of contaminations is an important first step in developing intervention methods to alleviate cotton stickiness. The effects of heat and the introduction of yeast in accelerating sugar decomposition are described briefly.
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