Amino Acid and Carbohydrate Profiles of Cotton Plant Biomass Products

Nutrition is essential in cotton plant growth and high quality cotton biomass products and byproducts can be used as animal feed and industrial raw materials. Therefore, we collected whole cotton plants from fertilizer treatments and separated them into different biomass fractions -- main stems, leaf blades, branches, petioles, roots, and reproductive part (midseason) or bur, peduncles+bracts, and seed cotton (harvest ready). The contents of amino acids and selected carbohydrates in these biomass materials were determined. Both essential and nonessential amino acids were enriched in cotton leaf blades and reproductive parts. The distribution pattern of the selected carbohydrates differed from that of amino acids as higher contents of carbohydrate, especially the polymeric cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, were found in root, main stem and branch parts. Nutritional carbohydrates and amino acids were further cumulated in the reproductive seed part with the growth. The information reported in this work would be helpful in exploring and optimizing management practices and processing strategies in utilizing these cotton crop biomass materials as valuable and renewable natural resources.