ABSTRACT
Cotton fiber and cottonseed are the two major products of cotton crop. The ratio of fiber and cotton is 100/150. Cotton fiber represents 85-90% of cotton’s total economic value. Thus, enhanced utilization of cottonseed products as industrial raw materials would greatly benefit cotton growers and processors. Defatted cottonseed meal is the residual fraction after oil crushing. Cottonseed protein isolate is a product of defatted cottonseed meal by alkali extraction and acid precipitation. Water washed cottonseed meal is a product from defatted cottonseed meal by simple washing procedure to remove water-soluble ingredients. In this chapter, we review the studies of preparation, characterization, and testing of water washed cottonseed meal as wood adhesives. Data indicate that the washed cottonseed meal serves as wood adhesives, better than the defatted meal, and comparable or even better in some cases, than protein isolate. Thus, water washing is an economic and environment-friendly method to produce cottonseed-meal based wood adhesives. Future research should be focused on the application of the washed cottonseed meal in production of oriented strand board, fiber board and particleboard as the composite wood industry is the primary consumer of wood adhesives.
