LANTANA CAMARA A POTENTIAL WEED FOR PREPARING ALFA CELLULOSE AND ITS METHYL CELLULOSE DERIVATIVE

摘要

Lantana camara belongs to the family Verbenaceae, is a noxious weed which has imposed a great threat to land productivity, grazing livestock, biodiversity and consequently to the over all ecology. From the day it was perceived as a menace, efforts are being made to control the weed by different methods. Since it is rich in lignocellulosic material, so an attempt has been made to isolate alpha cellulose from Lantana camara and to prepare cellulose derivative of commercial utility. So a process has been optimized for preparing alpha cellulose by chemical means from this weed and then derivatizing it to prepare methyl cellulose.