Potatoes… - Bayer CropScience

Nature and technology
Adhesives are common in nature. Paper
wasps collect wood fragments in order
to create the cellulose-based glue they use
to build their nests. Spiders cover the
threads of their webs with a thin layer of
sticky material that leaves their prey no
possibility of escape. Carnivorous plants of
the genus Drosera (sundew) catch insects
with glandular hairs (see picture) that
secrete a sticky fluid.
Mankind has been using adhesives for
thousands of years – initially without understanding
the principles of cohesion and
adhesion that underlie stickiness. Intermole -
cular cohesive forces hold the atoms and
molecules of a material together, whereas
adhesive forces determine the ability of two
different materials to stick to each other.
Today, the adhesive potential of natural
substances is exploited in many ways – for
example using casein (the milk protein of
ruminants) to stick labels onto glass bottles;
or starch from potatoes to produce corrugated
cardboard. ■
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