Cotton

Cotton is a soft fibre that grows just about the seeds of the cotton plant , a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, with the Americas, India, and Africa. However, virtually all of the profitable cotton grown today worldwide is grown from varieties of the native American species Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense. The fibre is most over and over again spun into thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most widely used natural-fibre cloth in clothing today. The English forename derives from the Arabic word al qutun, meaning "cotton fiber".

Cotton fibre, once it has been processed to eliminate seeds and traces of wax, protein, etc., consists of nearly pure cellulose, a natural polymer. Cotton manufacture is very efficient, in the sense that ten percent or less of the weight is lost in subsequent processing to convert the raw cotton bolls into pure fibre. The cellulose is arranged in a method that gives cotton fibres a high degree of strength, durability, and absorbency. Each fibre is made up of twenty to thirty layers of cellulose coiled in a neat series of natural springs. When the cotton boll is opened, the fibres dry into flat, twisted, ribbon-like shapes and become kinked jointly and interlocked. This interlocked form is ideal for spinning into a fine yarn.