Effects of Water Quality on Reeling Performance and Raw Silk Quality of Silkworm (Br-Urboshi) Cocoons: Water of Bholahat Region

Abstract

For many years raw silk output of Bholahat area of Nawabganj

district has been becoming the highest. At present it is about 70%

of Bangladesh's total raw silk production. It would be helpful to

know the influence of water on raw silk for existing reeling centres

and also while setting up new reeling centres for achieving better

results. An attempt has been made in this study to assess the effect

of these chemical constituents of available natural water collected

from different sources in the traditional silk reeling areas of

Bholahat on the reeling performance and quality. Four different

water samples of Bholahat region together with distilled water were

used to reel silk cocoons of the race (Br-Urboshi) and their effects

on raw silk and silk quality were analysed. The results obtained and

discussed herein suggest that water from bore-well and river water

which contain relatively low hardness (total, temporary and permanent

hardness) and low pH values with acceptable limit for silk

reeling produced significantly more raw silk and better reelability,

renditta, medium size deviation, tenacity and better winding breaks

and cohesion.