Cellulose

Physical properties

Cellulose is a component of at least a third of advanced plants: 40-60% (in weight) of dry wood, and more than 90% of raw cotton (99.9% of purified cotton) and flax. Therefore, cellulose is unquestionably the most abundant naturally occurring reproducible organic compound. In the second quarter of the 19th century cellulose became recognized as a chemical compound. In the 1830s, the French agriculturist Anselme Pay on named the main constituent of cell wall membranes of the plant cellulose.It took some time (until the 1930s) before the molecular structure of cellulose was established.

Definition

A polysaccharide thatconsists of a long unbranched chainof glucose units. It is the main constituentof the cell walls of all plants,many algae, and some fungi and isresponsible for providing the rigidityof the cell wall. It is an importantconstituent of dietary fibre. Thefibrous nature of extracted cellulosehas led to its use in the textile industryfor the production of cotton,artificial silk, etc.