Differences in Metabolites of White and Naturally Colored Cotton: Implications for Biofunctional and Aseptic Textiles

The study was targeted at naturally colored cotton: white, white with a shade of ash gray, white with a creamy shade, and brown with a shade of marmoreal pink, collected from eighteen lines and cultivars. Metabolites were analyzed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. 83 metabolites were studied in cotton fiber. Brown fiber samples differed from white, ash-gray, and creamy ones in the sum of lactic + β-hydroxypropionic acids (>11.0 ppm), concentrations of phosphoric acid (>57.0 ppm) and asparagine (>3.3 ppm), contents of oligo- and monosaccharides, with the maximum for glucose (130.0 ppm), but brown had minimum levels of linolenic acid (>10.0 ppm) and diacylglycerol (>0.1 ppm). Meanwhile, pipecolic acid content was higher in white samples (>2.1 ppm). Brown samples had high contents of glycerol (20.0 ppm), β-sitosterol (>17.0 ppm), and the highest content of phenol-containing compounds (>12.2 ppm), including hydroxybenzoic and salicylic acid (8.0 ppm of each), but erythritol was higher in white samples (2.5 ppm). Properties of bioactive metabolites suggested therapeutic, delicate aseptic, repellent, UV protective, and metal toxicity reducing effects of the studied fibers, and their resistance to biodestruction by pecto- and cellulolytic bacteria and mold fungi, which would make biofunctional textile more comfortable, and hygienic.