High value bio-extractives from cotton gin trash (CGT)

Cotton ginning generates several million tonnes of by-product, cotton gin trash (CGT), each year. This thesis focuses on investigating CGT for high value bio-extractives. The volatile extracts were obtained from CGT by various solvent extractions or hydrodistillation, and analysed using gas chromatography (mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and flame ionisation detector (GC-FID)) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Biological activity of the extracts was determined following cell-based anti-inflammatory assays such as nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and interleukin 8 (IL-8). The volatile extract obtained by hydrodistillation of CGT contained 25% of an anti-inflammatory sesquiterpene, ß-bisabolol.