This video shows how silk production is carried out in China, starting with the eggs of the silkworm which produce the silk when they build their cocoon. The inside of the cocoon is very hard, and the enzyme serrapeptase is used by the emerging moth to burn a hole in it to emerge.
Silk Production in China
NOTES:
- The video shows the life-cycle of silkworms in what looks like a museum, probably attached to the factory that produces the silk.
- Silkworms eat bushels of mulberry leaves every day.
- They spin cocoons made up of compacted silk threads.
- Machines are used to unravel the cocoons.
- Put into boiling water first to soften the cocoons.
- 9 cocoons are used to make one filament.
- The Chinese have been making silk for more than 5000 years.