Study of Physical Characteristics of Silk Fibre of Eri Silkworm Reared on Mikania Micrantha, Ricinus Communis and Their Combination

Mainu Devi / International Journal of Modern Sciences and Engineering Technology (IJMSET) ISSN 2349-3755; Available at https://www.ijmset.com Volume 2, Issue 11, 2015, pp.71-73

Dr. Mainu Devi Department of Zoology, Diphu Govt. College, Diphu-782 460, Karbi Anglong, Assam, India. E.mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Impact of feeding of Japanese weed leaves (Mikania micranhta) and Castor leaves (Ricinus communis) on Physical characteristics of silk fibre of eri silk worm, Samia ricini Donovan has been investigated. The larvae were reared on four experimental treatments (Ex tr. 1 – host plant. Mikania micrantha from 1st instar till maturity; Ex tr. II – host plant - Ricinus communis from 1st to 4th instar larva, the 5th instar larva fed on Mikania micrantha & Ricinus communis in equal proportion till maturity; Ex tr. III – the host plant Ricinus communis from I to II instar larvae. III instar larvae fed on Mikania micrantha till maturity; Ex tr.IV – the host plant Ricinus communis - the control ) and the Physical characteristics of silk fibre (Denier, Tenacity, Elongations and Defective cocoon percentage) were studied. Significantly finer denier (1.786±0.070), higher breaking strength or tenacity (3.590±0.150) and lower percentage of elongation at break (24.029±1.557) were recorded in the larvae fed with Japanese weed leave from III instar till maturity. No defective cocoons were recorded in any case under the laboratory condition conducted under investigation. Thus Mikania micrantha a commonly available weed all over can be commercially exploited for better growth, development and silk yield of Samia ricini Donovan. Key word : Samia ricini Donovan, Mikania micrantha, Ricinus communis, Physical characters of silk fibre.

1.INTRODUCTION : The nutritional value of leaf has been implicated as a major factor in the survival of non-mulberry silkworms ( Pandey, 1995). Many plants contain a variety of metabolites which are harmful as well as beneficial to biotic stresses, whereas same compounds in plants are beneficial to insects also for their better growth and development to perpetuate their life style. There are number of plants which are having Insect Growth Regulatory (IGR) activity, used in higher concentration they are detrimental to the insects but useful at lower concentrations particularly for productive insects (Mane and Patil, 2000a & 2000b). The weed plants such as Cassia tora, Lantana camara, Clerodendron inermae, Tribulus terrestris, etc. are being tried to increase the silk and egg production in mulberry silk worm Bombyx mori as well as eri silk worm, Samia cynthia ricini Bois. Shivkumar et al (1995 ) reported the weed plant Cassia tora extracts in accelerating the maturity of Bombyx mori. The leaves of weed plant Mikania micrantha had been found to have significant effect on qualititave parameters of eri silk worm, Samia ricini Donovan while fortified them with castor leave extracts (Devi , M., 2010). Chowdhary et al., (1996) also observed that the butanol extracts of Cassia tora in decreasing the larval period and increasing the silk ratio of Bombyx mori. The present study aims to know the effect of feeding Mikania micrantha a commonly available weed all over on the physical characters (Denier, Tenacity, Elongations and Defective Cocoon percentage) of silk fibre of Eri Silkworm Samia ricini Donovan. 2.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fresh disease free layings (dfls) of Eri silkworm were reared in the laboratory at temperature 22 ± 3 and 78 ± 4% RH. The egg incubation and rearing was undertaken as per the recommended method of Choudhury (1982a ). Four experimental treatments were developed with different food plants of Mikania micrantha and Ricinus communis ; Experimental tr-I- (Host plant Mikania micrantha); Experimental tr- II ( Host plant Ricinus communis from I to IV instar larvae. The V instar larvae fed with Ricinus communis and M. micrantha in equal proportion) ; Experimental tr-III ( Host plant plant Ricinus communis from I to II instar larvae. III instar larvae fed with Mikania micrantha till maturity). Experimental tr-IV( Host plant Ricinus communis considered as control). The Physical characteristics of silk fibre such as Denier, Tenacity, Elongations and Defective cocoon percentage were calculated and subjected to statistical analysis. © IJMSET-Advanced Scientific Research Forum (ASRF), All Rights Reserved “IJMSET promotes research nature, Research nature enriches the world’s future” 71 Mainu Devi / International Journal of Modern Sciences and Engineering Technology (IJMSET) ISSN 2349-3755; Available at https://www.ijmset.com Volume 2, Issue 11, 2015, pp.71-73 Table- Silk quality parameters of eri silkworm Samia ricini Donovan reared on different food plants (Mikania micrantha, Ricinus communis and their combination).

Treatments Denier(degummed) Tenacity(g/den) Elongation(%)

Mean±SE CV% Mean±SE Cv% Mean±SE CV%

Ex.-tr. I 1.806±0.061 18.72 3.586±0.150 22.95 24.096±1.396 31.748

Ex-tr.II 1.918±0.070 20.07 3.405±0.146 23.45 25.068±1.546 33.79

Ex.-tr. III 1.786±0.070 17.69 3.590±0.150 22.92 24.029±1.557 34.076

Ex.-tr. IV 1.820±0.061 18.58 3.572±0.155 23.80 24.383±1.452 32.63 (Control)

3.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: Eri silkworm reared on Mikania micrantha, Ricinus communis and their combination have profound effect on Denier, Tenacity and Elongation at break as shown in the table. Significantly finer denier (1.786±0.070), higher breaking strength or tenacity (3.590±0.150) and lower percentage of elongation at break (24.029±1.557) were recorded in the larvae fed with Japanese weed leave from III instar till maturity. All silk fibres become finer from the outside towards the inside after a slight initial rise. Finer silk fibres have higher strength and lower percentage elongation at break (Rajkhowa, 2000). It is also established fact that lower the single cocoon filament denier, better is the quality of cocoons (Vasumathi, 2000). A lower denier implies finer silk filament and hence is more desirable. On the other hand if the tenacity becomes lower, the elongation become higher as the mean thread size (denier) increases (llzuka, 2000). IIzuka, while worked on Antheraea silk observed that the thinner antherea silk has more developed fibre structure. He further, claimed that the same is true in Bombyx silk whose mean thread size ranges from 1.5 to 3.5 denier. The higher tenacity of finer fibre is due to the more compact structure of finer filament. However, in case of eri fibre, which is not reelable, fibre fineness estimated from the average fibre denier in a particular layer results in very high CV %. In the present study, lower single cocoon filament denier, higher tenacity and lower elongation at break were recorded in the silk from the larvae fed on 40% aqueous extracts of Mikania micrantha fortified on castor leave implies finer silk filament compared to the control and other treatments. The finer silk filament may be attributed to the increased protein synthesis particularly the fibrion synthesis in the posterior silk gland which in turn influences the fibre fineness. Significantly finer denier was recorded by mulberry silkworm fed on soyabean supplementation (2.72) and coarser denier (2.86) in control (Sundar Raj, Shinnaswami and Sannappa, 2000). The findings are in conformity with the findings of Santoshkumar, Rajashekharagouda and Mane (2000), who obtained lowest denier produced by the silkworm fed on mulberry leaves dusted with weed plant Lantana camara. The present observations are also in consensus with findings of Krishnappa (1987), Sridhar and Radha (1987) and Babu (1994) for experiment with glycine supplementation in mulberry leaf. Further, in the present investigation no defective cocoons in any case under laboratory condition were noticed which further proved better quality of cocoons, hence, better quality of silk fibre produced by eri silkworm reared with different treatments. 4.CONCLUSION : Thus, there is a great scope in feeding of Mikania micrantha, a widely available weed for rearing the worm for silk production commercially. 5.REFERENCES: [1]Babu,V.P.(1994) Influence of supplementation of L-glycine on parent silkworm, Bombyx mori L. and grainage, rearing and cocoon parameters during successive generation. M.Sc.(Ser) Thesis,U.A.S., p.122. [2]Chaudhury,S.N.(1982a) Eri Silk Industry, published by Directorate of Sericulture& Weaving,Govt. of Assam, pp.16-114. [3]Chowdhary,S.K. Khajuria, R.K. and Kulsresta, A.K.(1996) Silk enhancer from Cassia tora for Bombyx mori, Sericologia, 36(2) 259-266. © IJMSET-Advanced Scientific Research Forum (ASRF), All Rights Reserved “IJMSET promotes research nature, Research nature enriches the world’s future” 72 Mainu Devi / International Journal of Modern Sciences and Engineering Technology (IJMSET) ISSN 2349-3755; Available at https://www.ijmset.com Volume 2, Issue 11, 2015, pp.71-73 [4]Devi, M.(2010).An Investigation on growth development and yield of silkworm Samia ricini reared on Castor and Japanese weed in Karbi Anglong District. Ph.D. Thesis , Gauhati University, Assam (India). [5]IIzuka,E.(2000) Physical properties of silk thread from cocoons of various wild silk-moth including domestic silkmoth. Int. J. wild silkmoth & silk. 5 : 266-269. [6]ManeJ.R.; Patil,G.M. (2000a) Effect of botanicals having phagostimulant properties on the economic traits of Eri silkworm, Samia cynthia ricini, Bois., International Journal of wild silkmoth and silk , 5 : 196-199. [7]Mane,J.R.;Patil, G.M. (2000b) Effect of botanicals having IGR activity on growth & development and economic Eri Silk worm, Samia Cynthia ricini boisd, International Journal of wild silkmoth and silk , 5 : 200- 203. [8]Pandey,S.K.(1995) Do leaf tannin affect non-mulberry silkworm ? Indian Silk, 34(8): 21-23. [9]Rajkhowa,R.(2000) Structure property correlation of non- mulberry and mulberry silk fibre. International J. of Wild Silkmoth. Vol. 5: pp 287-298. [10].Santosh kumar,G.H.;Rajasekhargouda and Mane (2000) Effect of dusting some plant products on quantitative and qualitative characters of Mulberry silk. Bull. Acad. Ser 4(1) 75-77. [11].Shivkumar, G.R. and Anantharaman, K.V. (Identification of locally available plant rich in phytoecdysteroid and its extraction. Central Sericulture Research and Training Institute, Annual Report for 1995-96, Mysore, pp 95-97. [12].Sridhar, P. and Radha, N.V. (1987) Effect of supplementing glycine to the feed of silkworm Bombyx mori L. (Mahalingam,S) Proc. Natl. Semi. Prosp. Prob. Seric.(March 27-30,1986), vellore, pp. 115-121. [13].Sundar Raj,S.; Chinnaswamy, K.P. and Sannappa, B. (2000) Effect of feeding mulberry leaves fortified with protein supplementations on the productivity of silkworm, Bombyx mori L. Bull. Ind. Acad. Seri. 4(2) : 34-35. [14].Vasumathi, B.V.(2000), An analytical study of the silk reeling operation in Karnataka, Ph.D. Thesis, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

AUTHOR’S BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Dr. (Mrs) Mainu Devi: She is working as an Assistant Professor (Sr.Grade) in the Department of Zoology , Diphu Govt. College, Assam. She has twenty years of teaching experience. She is a Member of Various Professional Bodies. Her participation in national and international conferences and seminars is noteworthy. She has published research papers in various esteemed reputable National and International Journals. She has completed a research project ‘A study on the use of Japanese Weed on growth and development of Sama ricini Donovan.’ Sponsored by U.G.C/ NERO.