Abstract
The influence of cocoon cooking condition and croissure length on certain quality characteristics of raw silk has been studied for Indian bivoltine hybrid cocoons. Study has been carried out using two cooking methods viz., single pan and pressurised and three levels of croissure length - 3 cm, 8 cm and 13 cm. Results indicate that both cocoon cooking condition and croissure length have significant influence on quality of silk. As the croissure length increases, tenacity, cleanness and cohesion of raw silk are found to increase significantly. Single pan cooking and shorter croissure length of 3cm affect the quality of raw silk significantly. The quality characteristics of raw silk viz., neatness, cleanness, tenacity, elongation and cohesion have been found to be significantly better in the case of pressurised cooking and 8 and 13 cms croissure length. It is observed that cocoon cooking condition plays a more dominant role as compared to croissure length on cohesion of raw silk Results indicate that cooking the cocoons to the required level and maintaining the good croissure length of 8 to 13 cm are essential for producing better quality silk.
