Effectiveness of Environmentally Friendly Retting Techniques on Industrial Hemp

With the passage of the federal 2014 Farm Bill, which allows state department of agriculture and land grant universities conduct industrial hemp related research, more than 20 states around the U.S. have passed legislation regarding this. Interests have been growing from various stakeholders in understanding more about the planting and applications of industrial hemp. Due to the lack of research on fiber extraction processes that separate fibers from binding material in the stem and produce fibers with high cellulose content, hemp fibers have not been utilized in apparel industry as widely as other natural cellulose fibers. In this study, three environmentally friendly retting techniques on industrial hemp fibers were investigated for their effectiveness. They were enzyme, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and enzyme/EDTA combination. Treated hemp fibers were evaluated by weight, chemical composition, thermal properties, and surface morphology

Construction of a Database for Socio-Demographic, Medico-Legal, Anatomic, and Genomic Research into Suicide

poster abstractSuicide is a potentially preventable tragedy. Over 180 cases of suicide a year occur in Marion County. We have created a database that permits integration of socio-demographic data, medico-legal information, anatomic images, and genomic results. We have collected over 50 cases to date. We will show results of analyses looking at method of suicide, toxicology results, and genomic biomarker correlates. It is hoped that this resource would permit the study of risk factors and the creation of predictive algorithms that may better identify people at risk, and lead to early intervention and prevention efforts

Environmentally friendly industrial hemp processing for high quality fibers

This study investigated the use of chemicals, enzyme, microorganisms, and a combination of microorganism and chemicals as agents for extraction of industrial hemp fibers for broad textile and apparel applications. Hemp from plants grown in Washington State were the focus of this research with a Canada hemp being utilized for comparison purpose. The goal was to explore environmentally friendly methods for the removal of non-cellulosic components (i.e. hemicellulose, lignin, and pectin) from hemp fiber by reducing the consumption of caustic chemicals that cause harm to the environment. Additionally, morphological and physical properties of Washington grown hemp were benchmarked, as a new growing region for the crop. The effect of these agents on the physical, mechanical, and molecular properties of hemp fibers was examined by scanning-electron microscopy, fiber weight loss, tensile strength and elongation, thermogravimetric analysis and derivative thermogravimetric analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results show that chemical treatment was the most effective and efficient degumming method, removing the most amount of residual gummy materials from the fibers' surface as seen in scanning-electron micrographs. Chemically treated fibers also showed separation of the individual fibers from the fiber bundles. The enzyme and microorganism treated fibers all showed similar results for morphological, mechanical, thermal, and molecular properties, and had low efficacy for removal of the non-cellulosic constituents. Additionally, none of these treated fibers showed separation of individual fibers from fiber bundles. The combined microorganism and chemical treatment had greater efficacy for removal of non-cellulosic constituents compared to the enzyme and single microorganism treatments. However the combination treatment was not as effective as the chemically treated fibers and also did not show separation of fiber bundles

Effectiveness of Environmentally Friendly Retting Techniques on Industrial Hemp

With the passage of the federal 2014 Farm Bill, which allows state department of agriculture and land grant universities conduct industrial hemp related research, more than 20 states around the U.S. have passed legislation regarding this. Interests have been growing from various stakeholders in understanding more about the planting and applications of industrial hemp. Due to the lack of research on fiber extraction processes that separate fibers from binding material in the stem and produce fibers with high cellulose content, hemp fibers have not been utilized in apparel industry as widely as other natural cellulose fibers. In this study, three environmentally friendly retting techniques on industrial hemp fibers were investigated for their effectiveness. They were enzyme, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and enzyme/EDTA combination. Treated hemp fibers were evaluated by weight, chemical composition, thermal properties, and surface morphology.</p