The silk industry in Kancheepuram is one of the fastest growing industries in India. The industry currently employs more than 30,000 weavers in the art of saree making. This was not the scenario in the past. The industry had to compete with the synthetic fiber industry in many aspects. One of the major drawbacks of the silk industry in Kancheepuram was the lack of support from technology. The i...

Silk, which is obtained from the cocoon of the silkworm, is a recognized cause of occupational asthma in silk-industry workers (1). Allergic rhinitis and asthma caused by silk have also been reported in children in China, in the absence of occupational exposure (2). However, allergy to silk in clothing is rare, as silk threads to be used for fabrics are subjected to several processes that remov...

India has glorious sericulture tradition of its own, which no other country in the world can share. Silk is indispensable in ceremonies and religious rituals, being a must in weddings and festivals. India’s traditional and culture bound domestic market and an amazing diversity of silk garments that reflect geographic specificity helped the country to achieve a leading position in silk industry....

The silk industry of nineteenth-century Britain failed to conform to the pattern of child employment in other branches of textiles, for child labour remained unregulated in the dynamic years of the industrial revolution, allowing the continued employment of comparatively large numbers of children. Two main arguments were persistently advanced by silk manufacturers for special treatment. First, ...

Spider silk has been studied recently because of its tremendous strength and flexibility [1]. Biotechnology now opens possibilities for the application of spider silk [2–7]. We describe a new avenue for the application of spider silk in textile science and industry. Recently, spider silk/carbon nanotube composites have been prepared, and their mechanical and electrical properties characterized....

Silk fibers have many inherent properties that are suitable for their use in biomaterials. In this study, the silk fibroin was genetically modified by including a Ca-binding sequence, [(AGSGAG)6ASEYDYDDDSDDDDEWD]2 from shell nacreous matrix protein. It can be produced as fibers by transgenic silkworm. The Ca-binding activity and mineralization of the transgenic silk fibroin were examined in vit...