Is tussah silk harmful? What is the difference between it and mulberry silk?

Tussah is one of the commonly used raw materials in natural textiles. It is mainly used to make silk quilts, silk pillows, and silk carpets. It has certain benefits to the body. Long-term use of tussah-related bedding can be health-care, antibacterial and anti-corrosion. Tussah has good moisture absorption, corrosion resistance, and is light and warm. Tussah silkworms mostly grow in the north and are all wild tussah silkworms. Their silk is relatively hard compared to mulberry silk, but it feels elastic, soft, and has bright colors. It is an indispensable item in home life.

What is the difference between mulberry silk and tussah silk?

1. Mulberry silk is generally produced in the south. It is soft, smooth, elegant in color, and fine in fiber. It is mainly used as clothing fabric. Mulberry silk is artificially cultivated and delicate and soft.

2. Tussah silk is generally produced in the north, with strong elongation, corrosion resistance, light resistance, moisture absorption, natural color, coarse fiber, moisture absorption and breathable, fluffy and warm, mainly used as silk quilts and silk carpets; Tussah silk is wild and free-range to absorb the essence of the earth, has good health care, and is elegant and luxurious. The first choice of silk quilt is the Afang Palace silk quilt.

The filamentary silk made from the silk spun by tussah silkworms is called tussah silk. Depending on the cooking and bleaching of the cocoons and the chemical agents used, silk can be divided into two types: medicated silk and gray silk. The medicated silk is bleached with peroxide, and the silk color is light yellow; the gray silk is bleached with alkaline substances, and the cocoons are gray-brown. According to the different reeling methods, silk can be divided into water reeling and dry reeling. Water-reeled silk is reeled in the warm water of a vertical reeling machine, and the silk color is light yellow; dry-reeled silk is reeled on the table of a dry reeling machine. Various types of tussah silk, both machine-made and hand-made, are mostly used to weave tussah silk with rough, rich, crisp silk surface and natural knotty patterns. This kind of silk is also famous internationally. Because its main production areas are Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Heilongjiang and other provinces in northern China, it is called "Shandong Silk".

Tussah silk is one of my country's unique natural textile raw materials. Its silk has a unique jewel luster, natural luxury, smoothness and comfort. Ramie is known as a green natural textile fiber. It has always been used as a high-end textile and clothing fabric because of its high strength, fast moisture absorption and heat dissipation, rugged elegance, antibacterial and anti-corrosion, and health care functions. In recent years, people have made full use of the natural properties of these two fibers to research and develop tussah silk/ramie interwoven knitted fabrics.

However, tussah silkworms are wild silkworms. Due to the lack of artificial management and the influence of the natural environment, their silk feels stiff and has a natural yellowish-brown color. Tussah silk is a protein fiber, which contains not only the main component fibroin, but also sericin, wax and natural pigments. On the other hand, ramie is a cellulose fiber, which contains not only cellulose, but also hemicellulose, lignin, pectin, wax and natural pigments. Due to the high orientation and crystallinity of ramie fiber, as well as the fact that ramie fiber is relatively thick, the bending index of a single fiber is very large, and it is difficult to bend when subjected to external force, and it is easy to produce a tingling sensation during consumption. When these two kinds of fibers are interwoven into knitted fabrics, although they have unique style and advantages, the differences in structure and performance of the two kinds of fibers in this type of product make dyeing and finishing more difficult, especially pre-treatment.

Tussah silk is made up of two parallel flat monofilaments, and its main components are fibroin and sericin. Its insulation, strength, elongation, embrittlement resistance, acid and alkali resistance are better than mulberry silk. Silk fibroin is white and translucent, and its strength can be increased by 4%. It is lustrous, accounting for about 85%; sericin is light brown and has strong moisture resistance, accounting for about 13%; in addition, ash, pigments, etc. account for about 2%. Sericin is layered and attached to the outside of silk fibroin, playing a protective role. It is soluble in boiling water, hot soap solution and alkaline solution; silk fibroin is insoluble. Silk fibroin is composed of 18 amino acids, mainly alanine, glycine, serine and tyrosine; sericin is composed of 15 amino acids, mainly aspartic acid, serine, threonine and arginine (see silk). When reeling silk, the silk threads from several tussah cocoons are extracted and glued together to form tussah silk.

Tussah silk feels soft and elastic. It has good heat resistance, with sericin attached to the outside of silk in layers, and its strength only begins to weaken when the temperature reaches 140°C. The moisture resistance is also strong, accounting for about 85%; sericin is light brown, and its strength can increase by 4% under wet conditions. Its insulation, strength, elongation, embrittlement resistance, acid and alkali resistance are better than mulberry silk. But the fabric shrinkage rate is large. Raw silk is not easy to dye.