By Jessica Ryan, Public Affairs Specialist, United States Department of Agriculture
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) bred four cotton lines that can be used to make self-extinguishing textiles when exposed to fire and will reduce the need for flame-retardant chemicals to be embedded in consumer products, according to a recent study published in PLOS ONE.
The cotton lines were developed from cultivated cotton varieties and possessed a novel flame-retardant trait. When exposed to an open flame, the fabric from the new cotton lines self-extinguished whereas regular cotton fabric burned entirely in seconds.
“Use of these lines to develop commercial cultivars creates an opportunity to improve the safety of cotton products while reducing the economic and environmental impacts of chemical flame retardants,” said Brian Condon, senior author of the study and retired research leader at the ARS Cotton Chemistry and Utilization Research Unit in New Orleans. “These lines will significantly benefit growers, producers, and consumers.”
During a standard 45° incline flammability test, regular cotton (seen on the top row) burned instantly when exposed to an open flame. In the same test, the fire-resistant cotton (seen on the bottom row) self-extinguished when exposed to an open flame.
Cotton typically produces flammable fibers and is treated with chemicals to be flame retardant when used for consumer products like clothing, mattresses, upholstery, and carpet. The new cotton lines were created by a multi-parent breeding approach that resulted in new opportunities for natural genes to interact and develop the unexpected trait of flame retardancy.
ARS researchers Johnie Jenkins and Jack C. McCarty, supervisory research geneticists at the ARS Genetics and Sustainable Agriculture Research Unit in Mississippi, bred cotton lines to identify genes that affect agronomic traits such as yield and pest resistance and fiber quality traits such as length, strength, and fineness.
“ARS scientists study every step of cotton production from ‘Dirt to Shirt’ including genetic diversity, field management practices, fiber quality attributes, and end-use textile characteristics,” said Jenkins.
Although all of the parental cotton lines produced flammable fabric, researchers found that flame retardance did not come from a single gene. Instead, they found that multiple genes created a phenotype for fibers with significantly lower heat release capacities. The new cotton lines also possessed the desired agronomic and fiber quality traits, making the lines sought after for breeding and consumer usage.
“We look at fabric quality and chemical finishes that create permanent press, wrinkle-free, and flame-retardant fabrics. Now we have found lines with a novel and natural genetic mechanism for flame retardance,” said Condon.
According to Gregory Thyssen, Computational Biologist at the ARS Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans:
Further research about the durability of the flame-resistant property in different types of fabrics, yarn, textiles and after multiple washings, is still ongoing. This will help us determine what uses of cotton will benefit the most from this novel property. Further study to identify the metabolite that produces the natural flame retardance is also ongoing, and will help us further clarify the genes involved in its biosynthetic pathway, and therefore the key genes for breeders to incorporate into their new cultivars. The current paper found that an unexpected combination of genes is likely the cause of the novel [fire resistant] property, but for breeding to be efficient, we will work to narrow the list to the most important ones.
The flame-resistant lines will be released to cotton breeders by Johnie Jenkins and Jack McCarty who developed the MAGIC (multi-parent advanced generation intercross) population. Cotton breeders will be able to use these lines in their breeding programs to combine this new flame-resistant trait with other traits on which they have already been focused, including pest and stress tolerance, fiber quality and geographic optimization. However, since these lines were derived from already cultivated lines, they already possess many of these other desirable traits. So, once sufficient seed is available, these lines could be grown for cotton production. So, likely, two years until growers could grow these lines and [approximately] five years until breeders have incorporated the trait into commercial lines.
Go here to watch a video of fire-resistant cotton versus regular cotton in flammability testing.
Photo Credits: 1) A field of cotton bolls (Kimberly Vardeman via Wikimedia); 2) Cotton flammability testing (Doug Hinchliffe); 3) A roll of cotton cloth (PickPik); 4) Cotton in flower (Christine Moore)
Jessica Ryan is a public affairs specialist with the Agricultural Research Service, Office of Communications, Media Relations ranch of the USDA.
In 2001 when I was the National Herb Garden intern, my internship project was to research the plants in the Fragrance Garden and write the copy for the permanent display labels. I was delighted to get to research the Fragrance Garden, because so many of my favorite plants are fragrant plants, and I love them, both for their wonderful scents, but also for their often romantic and beguiling histories. So many of those stories could not fit on those small labels, but they stayed with me all these years nonetheless. My favorite was the story of how patchouli became known in the West, a story that involves French fashion, mistaken identity, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
You may have a strong reaction to just hearing the word “patchouli.” It seems to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it smells. I love it, but I understand disliking it. It is very strong and musky and extremely persistent (more on that later). Or maybe you dislike it because of its strong association with that other love-them-or-hate-them topic, the hippies. American and European young people flocked to India in the late sixties and early seventies and brought patchouli back home with them, along with other Indian goods and practices now associated with the hippie counterculture, like marijuana, incense, mala beads, colorful printed cottons, yoga, meditation, sitar music, and vegetarianism.
Nevertheless, it is an essential ingredient in the perfume world, where it is an extremely common base note found in a majority of perfumes today, at least in small quantities. It is found in Opium, Coco Mademoiselle, Paloma, Tabu, Arpege, Miss Dior, and many others. The oil is both very strong and long lasting and is also an excellent fixative, which means that it “fixes” whichever scents it is blended with, making the more volatile top notes last longer. It is said to have the rare property of deepening and improving with age, becoming richer and more complex, unlike most essential oils, which degrade over time (the same is said of sandalwood, vetiver, and frankincense). In small amounts and blended with other scents, it isn’t necessarily discernible as patchouli, but it lends the perfume a rich, warm, well-rounded base. It is also used in very low concentrations in the flavor industry to flavor beverages, food, and candy! In India, it is used to scent tobacco. Interestingly, there is no synthetic version.
And now for the story that so tantalized me. As a lifelong seamstress, I love textile history and lore as much as all things herbal, and this story has both! The history of patchouli arriving in the West is inextricably bound up with the history of Kashmiri shawls. Beautiful, ornate, woolen shawls have been woven in the Kashmir valley on the border of India and Pakistan for many centuries (documented to the 11
delicate silky fibers. The hair–and resulting yarn–is extremely fine textured and is known as cashmere (a variant spelling of Kashmir) or as pashmina (a term originally referring only to the very finest grade of cashmere but now diluted to near meaninglessness). One shawl could take a team of weavers many months up to a couple of years to produce, and the finest shawls cost the equivalent of about $10,000 in today’s dollars. They were gifted to and worn by royalty and the ruling elite throughout India, the Middle East and Near East, and beyond. By the mid-1700s, the shawls were finding their way into Europe, brought home to England and France by officers with the East India Company as gifts for their wives, and by the late 1700s, there were also textile factories in Scotland, England, and France creating imitations from fine merino wool and eventually from cashmere yarn imported from the East.
herself eventually collected hundreds of them. Those “in the know” considered it essential to acquire an authentic imported Kashmiri shawl and not one of the inferior domestic imitations. A reliable way to tell them apart, at least prior to about 1830, was by their scent! For when the shawls were packed for shipping in Kashmir, they were layered with dried patchouli leaves to repel moths. The enduring scent infused the shawls and added greatly to their mystique and glamour. The fragrance became as fashionable as the shawl, but for years, no one in the West knew its source. By 1826, French perfumers figured out that the source of the scent was the crumbled brown packing material, and eventually plants were located, imported, and grown in greenhouses. However, the plant that was imported was 
The shawls, and the scent of patchouli, were an essential item of fashion from 1800 up to about the early 1870s. Many women of high society had their portraits painted wrapped in their shawls. The shawls paired well with the clingy Empire style gowns worn in the early part of the century (think Jane Austen movies) and also with the full crinoline and hoop skirts of mid-century. However, they did not go as well 
with the bustled dresses coming into fashion in the 1870s and so fell out of fashion in favor of fitted jackets. Economic and geo-political changes also hurt imports. Additionally, the scent of patchouli also gradually fell out of favor as it became associated with licentiousness and marital infidelity, as its persistence would often betray the guilty parties, and among “respectable” women, lighter floral scents like violets and lilac came into style.
to refer to the motif itself. The pattern endured in European fashion and decorative arts, coming in and out of style over the years, and eventually exploding in popularity once again in the 1960s, right along with patchouli oil as perfume!
In the early 1970s, when the late President Richard Nixon was bugging the Watergate, Michael Michaud started his jewelry career. Known, today, for his cast botanical jewelry, including an extensive herb collection, Michaud, then, pounded a sterling silver fork into a bracelet for his girlfriend.
synchronicity. I’ve wanted a watermelon tourmaline ring for 20 years. Every now and then I’d visit NEOMA rock shop in Northeast Ohio lusting after slices of the pink and green stone. I’d make
Eureka! I stumbled into 
When I dress, I do it consciously. To fit in. To stand out. To make a statement. Details depend on my mood and event. For work, I’m conservative, for a party playful.
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