Corn husks

This example illustrates the difficulty of showing pesticides mutagenic activity. For example, mutagenic activity was clearly expressed not in the sym-triazine herbicides atrazine and cyanazine, but in their transformation products formed in corn husks ... 

Given that most of us are not equipped with such sophisticated weaponry and that chemical drain cleaners are not ideal, what do we do First and foremost, practice preventive maintenance. Make sure that fat does not go down the drain. Wipe greasy plates with soiled napkins newspaper is great for absorbing oil. If you have a garbarator, then use plenty of cold water to flush away the remains carrot peelings and corn husks, particularly, can cause obstructions. To keep drains flowing... 

Elsewhere, wood chips, sugarcane, switchgrass (also called Miscanthus), corn husks, prairie grass, or soybean and corn are being converted into liquid biofuels. Various waste materials are also used to make ethanol, butanol, biodiesel, and other substitutes for gasoline. 

This Iriquois mask is made of a mixture of plant and animal materials wood, pigments, horse hair, corn husks, copper, and a feather. 

Biomass materials depend on local conditions. In tropical areas, sugarcane is widely grown and bagasse is available as an energy feedstock. Rice growing areas have rice husks available. The Midwestern area of the U.S. can use corn husks and forested areas have timber residues. 

U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,368 [114] describes plastic cellulosic composite pellets comprising 20-60% by weight of polyethylene, polypropylene or polystyrene, 40-80% of cellulosic fiber (jute, kenaf, sisal, bamboo, rice hulls, corn husks, wood fiber, and wood flour) with an aspect ratio of between 2 and 20 and a trace of mineral coating (talc) dispersed on the surface of the pellet. 

In between each corn husk, tie one end of a piece of raffia or dried grass. 

Natural Metabolites. An innovative area of research is the effect of corn metabolites on A. flavus, A. parasiticus, and aflatoxin production. Metabolites from several plants have been reported to inhibit A. flavus or aflatoxin synthesis. A number of chemicals consisting of volatile oils from corn husks, kernels, and silks were extracted by several investigators (51,52) and tested in culture by Wilson et al. (53). Several alcohols... 

Which choice is greener in a chemical process Explain, (a) A reaction that can be run at 350 K for 12 hours without a catalyst or one that can be run at 300 K for 1 hour with a catalyst. (b)A reagent for the reaction that can be obtained ft om corn husks or one that can be obtained from petroleum, (c) A process that produces no by-products or one in which the byproducts are recycled for another process. 

Corn husks and other agricultural wastes are rich in pentosans. These pentosans are hydrolyzed to furfural with dilute sulfuric acid, and the furfural pyrolyzes to furan at 400 C. Furan is hydrogenated to tetrahydrofuran at 125 Cand 100 kbar ... 

Keywords Agro-residues, banana bunch fibers, biocomposites, biodegradable, corn husk fibers, natural fibers, okra bast fibers, renewable... 

Some of these agricultural byproducts which have been the subject of research efforts as fiber sources are corn husks rice and wheat straws corn, okra, cotton and reed stalks empty banana bunches pineapple and oil palm leaves and sugarcanes [5,7,10,13,16]. 

Yilmaz [11] investigated the effects of alkali extraction treatment parameters on properties of corn husk fibers. Yilmaz [13] compared corn husk fibers produced by water retting, alkalization and enzyme treatment. Huda and Yang [7] produced composites from corn husk fibers and polypropylene (PP) and investigated their flexural, impact resistance, tensile and sound absorption properties. 

Figure 11.1 Examples of some agro-residual fibers, (a) okra fiber (From 1. M. De Rosa et al. Composites Science and Technology, 2011 [14]. With Permission from Elsevier) (b) banana fiber (From A. V. R. Prasad, K. M. Rao, G. Ragavinirasulu, Indian Journal of Fibre and Textile Research, 2009 [30]. With permission from Indian Journal of Fibre and Textile Research)-, (c) corn husk fiber [31].

Retting time depends on the plant species. While okra bast fibers can be obtained after a duration of 15 - 30 days [14,22] it takes several months to extract fibers from corn husk by water retting [13]. The author has not been able to extract fibers from reed leaves and stalks even after two years of immersion in water tanks. 

Corn husk Alkalization Enzymatic treatment Bleaching Pidpzyme Cellulase Spectrophotometry 12... 

Corn husk Alkalization Enzymatic treatment Sulfonation Sodium sulfite Ethylenediamine Pulpzyme Cellulase Tensile strength, color, light and heat resistance 20... 

Corn husk Alkalization Enzyme treatment Pentopan Mono BG Tensile properties, moisture regain. 58... 

Corn husk Alkalization Water retting Enzyme treatment Pentopan Mono BG.Celluclast Chemical.tensile, thermal properties 13... 

Corn husk fibers the tenacity of which is around 25% lower than that of jute can produce more durable and tough composites than jute due to the elongtaion ratio and work of rupture which are 13 times and 7 times greater than that of jute, respectively [7]. 

Partly due to their porous structures, plant fibers present high thermal, electrical and acoustical insulation performance and they can be incorporated in biocomposites produced for these causes [49]. Huda and Yang [7] measured the sound absorption capacity of corn husk and jute reinforced PP composites. They found their noise reduction is comparable, and higher sound absorption was achieved when the corn husks xmder-went enzyme treatment before composite manufacturing process. It should be considered that moisture absortion substantially deteriorates heat and electrical insulation performance [71]. 

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