Cellulose

          

          The molecule cellulose as had a great impact in the world, promoting slavery, revolutions, civil wars and new discoveries of substances that would open the door to new activities.

           Cellulose is a polymer of glucose, more specifically a structural polymer, providing support to an organism, which explains why it is a major component of a plant cell wall, being also 90 percent of the cotton composition. Cotton is then the crop that so affected the world. The products made from cotton were very cheap, and they would be then used as a trading coin for more slaves from Africa, which would then be sent to the New World, either for the sugar cultivation or the cotton cultivation. This trading was very profitable for Britain and the production of cotton manufactured products increased. Lancashire, in England became the center of the cotton industry, since the climate conditions were ideal for the spinning and weaving processes. As the years passed the demand for the cheap cotton products had a great increase, because besides it'd low price, it was also attractive and ideal for clothing and household furnishings being easy to wash and sew. This consequently also increased the rate of the production of these products and the manufacturing processes started to be mechanized. Farming areas were transformed into industrialized areas filled with factories and the families which lives were made around the cotton factories lived in terrible unhealthy conditions, working long hours without receiving an appropriate salary and making small children also work in these factories. This period of indignation created the first movements and laws against child labor and for the protection of workers’ rights. These changes unfortunately did not happen quickly since the shareholders were having incredible profit which they didn't want to give up. However even though cotton manufacture brought such misery and hardships to some, it gave great prosperity to England providing the capital for further industrialization of the area. Cotton also had a big impact in the United States since slavery was a very important issue in the American civil war where the economic system was based around the cotton grown with slave work.

        The reason for the big interest and demand for cotton resides on the unique structure of the cellulose molecules that compose the cotton. Cellulose is a polymer in which beta-glucose molecules join together through condensation creating the chain of beta-glucoses that is cellulose. This cellulose chains will then pack tightly together lying side by side in bundles and then twisting together creating the rigid, insoluble and visible fibers characteristics of cotton and so important for plant cell walls. The OH groups not used in the bonds between glucoses will be in the outside part, and due to that they will attract the water molecules which gives cellulose and its’ products the so appreciated ability to absorb water, being good for cleaning, and good as clothing since it will absorb body sweat, giving a cool felling and being very comfortable, unlike other materials that don’t have this ability. Cellulose is very important in our diet, since it can help move waste products along the digestive track. 

However this molecule cannot be digested by humans or other mammals, because we don’t have the specific enzymes needed to break the beta linkage of cellulose, unlike some other animals which have certain areas to accommodate microorganisms that produce these digestive enzymes. Due to the fact that humans cannot digest beta linkages, it is impossible to us to use cellulose as a food source, and we can only end up relying on storage polysaccharides as glucose and energy sources, since they have the alpha linkages which human have the ability to digest. Starch and Glycogen are our storage polysaccharides. The first one, found in roots and seeds of many plants, is made of chains of both Amylose, and Amylopectin which form a helix, making starch soluble in water, while cellulose is not. As for Glycogen, this polysaccharide, found mostly in the liver and skeletal muscle cells in animals, is highly branched due to alpha cross links. This is very important, because being highly branched, the chain as a large number of ends, and like that various glucose molecules can be removed at the same it, for situations that require a high amount of energy.

            Derivatives of cellulose molecules have also been discovered through the years, and used in the most various and different ways. The explosive potential of a derivative of cellulose named nitrocellulose (firstly guncotton) was accidently discovered by Schönbein which hoped to commercialize this explosive substance which would replace the well-known gunpowder. Collodion, Celluloid and later cellulose acetate, were also derivatives of this molecule, used in the early stages of the photography business and movie industry, they open the doors for the beginning of this two fields of arts.

            The fact that cellulose was such a source of profit in the past, and just like sugar it moved nations and developed countries is quite surprising. Cotton is still very important nowadays, of course. Most of the clothes we wear, and the fabrics we use around as are also mostly made of cotton, making it still something important in today’s world. However, in comparison with the past, the importance as decreased a lot, due to the ease with which we could to get this materials. The author as perfectly shown to the readers the various aspects cotton and cellulose are necessary to a person, and its’ impacts in our world development. It is incredible to understand that a material we tend to take for granted, as once been the building block of nations and the martyr of others.