Gossypol sources

The importance of pigment glands as sources of toxins in cottonseed was suspected early in the twentieth century. In 1915 Withers and Carruth ( showed that the toxicity of cottonseed to animals was due to the compound gossypol localized in pigment glands. 

As opposed to the results indicated above, the effect of gossypol on the boll weevil is quite different. Gossypol is a feeding stimulant to the boll weevil (260). Boll weevils feeding on an artificial diet were healthier and had In jroved egg hatch when the gossypol fraction from cotton seed was used as the principle protein source. 

Calhoun, M. C., Huston, J. E., Baldwin, B. C., Jr., Kuhlmann, S. W., Engdahl, B. S., and Bales, K. W. (1990a). Effects of cottonseed meal source and dietary crude protein on performance of early-weaned lambs With observations on gossypol toxicity. In "Sheep and Goat, Wool and Mohair, Research Reports. PR 4790." Texas A M University System, College Station, TX. 

Use Source of cottonseed oil and meal, cotton Enters source of nutritional protein after removal of gossypol by centrifugation. 

Another approach is to breed plants with large amounts of antifeedant in them. Breeders have succeeded in producing cotton containing high levels of gossypol in the leaves but not in the seeds.141 This deters the tobacco bud-worm (Heliothis virescens) while still allowing the seeds to be used as a source of edible cottonseed oil. 

Sources. Gossypol is a polyphenolic pigment found in the pigment glands of cottonseed. 

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