About
The cotton plant's seeds, which are found in the genus Gossypium and family Malvaceae, grow inside a boll, a kind of protective shell. Fluffy, soft, and silky staple fiber is cotton fabric. Wax, lipids, pectins, and water may also be present in the fiber at tiny levels, but cellulose makes up the majority of it. When cultivated in their natural habitat, cotton bolls increase the likelihood that the seeds will be disseminated.
The plant in question is a shrub native to warm and warm-to-hot regions of the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt, and India. Mexico likely has the largest variety of wild cotton species, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently cultivated in the Old and New Worlds. The plant cotton yields fiber.
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| Cotton Fabrics |
Before being used, the fiber is often spun into yarn or thread to create a durable, pleasant, and breathable textile. Fabric made of cotton has been used since ancient times; relics of fabric from the Indus Valley civilization, which dates to the fifth millennium BC, and Peru, which dates to 4200 BC, have also been discovered.
These two cultures were both found in India. Although cotton has been grown since antiquity, it wasn't until the development of the cotton gin that production costs were lowered, resulting in its widespread use. As a result, cotton cloth is currently the natural fiber fabric that is most widely used in clothing.
The most recent estimates have the yearly global production at roughly 25 million tonnes, or 110 million bales, which equates to 2.5% of the world's arable land. India is the country that produces the most cotton than any other. The United States of America has long held the top export position in the world.
India's Andhra Pradesh state has cotton that is ready for harvest.
Types
Commercial cotton is grown from four different species, all of which were initially domesticated in antiquity:
Upland cotton known as Gossypium hirsutum is indigenous to southern Florida, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. 90% of the cotton produced worldwide is produced there.
Gossypium barbadense, also referred to as extra-long staple cotton, is a cotton species that is native to tropical South America and produces 8% of all cotton in the world [citation needed].
Gossypium arboreum also referred to as tree cotton, is a cotton plant that is native to Pakistan and India (less than 2% each).
Less than 2% of the cotton grown worldwide originates from the Gossypium herbaceum species, also referred to as Levant cotton. Southern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula are the native habitats of this species.
Hybrid versions are also being produced. The two cotton species endemic to the Old World were widely used before the 1900s, even though the two New World species account for the vast majority of today's cotton production. White, brown, pink, and green are just a few of the natural colors that can be found in cotton fibers. However, several cotton-producing countries have banned the production of colored cotton varieties due to worries that doing so might contaminate the genetics of white cotton.
Etymology
The Arabic word "qutn" (also written "qutun") is where the word "cotton" first appeared. This was the standard Arabic word for cotton during the Middle Ages. Marco Polo describes the Turkestan province of Khotan in chapter 2 of his book. This province was once located in Xinjiang, where copious amounts of cotton were raised.
Around the middle of the 12th century, the word first appeared in Romance languages, and it took another century for it to enter English. Ancient Romans were aware of cotton as an import, but until imports from Arabic-speaking nations at greatly decreased prices in the later medieval century, cotton was scarce in Romance-speaking regions.
History
The main article provides a full history of cotton.
beginning of human history
Additional information on tree cotton
a physical map showing the location of Mehrgarh and the area around it.
Copper beads dating to 5500 BC were found in the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh, which is situated at the base of the Bolan Pass in ancient India, today in Balochistan Pakistan. These copper beads are the oldest indications of cotton used in the Old World. Cotton textile fragments have been discovered at Mohenjo-Daro and other Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization sites. It's possible that this culture exported a lot of cotton.
Americas
Gossypium hirsutum was domesticated in Mexico between roughly 3400 and 2300 BC. During this time, individuals who lived between the Ro Santiago and the Ro Balsas produced cotton by farming, spinning, weaving, dying, and sewing.
Although this date has been contested, cotton bolls found in a cave close to Tehuacán, Mexico, have been dated as early as 5500 BC. At a pace of 116 million pounds annually, they paid tribute to their Aztec conquerors out of what they did not use for themselves.
Gossypium barbadense, a native cotton plant, may have been grown in Peru as early as 4200 B.C., according to evidence found in Ancon. It served as the cornerstone for the development of coastal cultures like the Norte Chico, Moche, and Nazca.
Upstream cotton was grown, fashioned into nets, and traded with fishing communities along the shore in exchange for large amounts of fish. When the Spanish first arrived in Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century, cotton was a common crop there, and the inhabitants were wearing cotton clothing.
Arabia
According to Megasthenes, an Alexander the Great contemporary, "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica" may be a reference to "tree cotton," Gossypium arboreum, a native of the Indian subcontinent, which the Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with until Alexander the Great's Wars.
The 17th edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia contains the following:
Cotton has been spun, weaved, and dyed since the beginning of time. In ancient India, China, and Egypt, it was used to create garments for people. Before the Christian era began, cotton textiles were woven in India with an unmatched level of skill, and their use eventually spread to the nations of the Mediterranean.
Iran
In Iran (formerly known as Persia), cotton has been cultivated since the Achaemenid era (5th century BC). There are, however, very few texts that cover the growing of cotton in Iran before the arrival of Islam.
Cotton was widely grown in the Merv, Ray, and Pars regions. Numerous poems in the Persian language, most notably Ferdowsi's Shahname, refer to cotton (or "pane" in Persian). During his lifetime in the 13th century, Marco Polo mentions cotton as one of Persia's main exports. In his writings after visiting Safavid Persia, John Chardin, a French traveler from the 17th century, extolled the vast cotton crops of Persia.
Read more about cotton in different continents