Method and device for marking fibrous materials

A method of authenticating a cotton material comprising:

• separating cotton fiber lint from cotton seeds, thereby creating a plurality of raw cotton fiber lint;
• forcing the raw cotton fiber lint through a duct by forced air;
• evenly depositing a DNA marker solution consisting of a double stranded DNA marker of a known sequence and reverse osmosis filtered water at a double stranded DNA marker concentration of 1 attogram per milliliter of filtered water to 1 microgram per milliliter of filtered water onto the raw cotton fiber lint passing through the duct, the depositing being performed with a delivery mechanism comprising spray nozzles spraying the DNA marker solution into the duct at a user defined flow rate;
• thereby producing DNA marked raw cotton fiber lint;
• and
• obtaining a sample of DNA marked raw cotton fiber lint and assaying the sample of DNA marked raw cotton fiber lint for the presence of the DNA marker via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or isothermal amplification to create an amplified product;
• and subjecting the amplified product to a specific sequence detection method thereby determining whether the DNA marked raw cotton fiber lint is authentic or counterfeit.

A method of DNA marking cotton fibers, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of raw cotton fiber lint in a ginning process;
• forcing the raw cotton fiber lint through a lint flue by a forced air stream;
• filtering water through a reverse osmosis filter;
• mixing a double stranded DNA marker of a known sequence with an alkali activator to create an alkali activated DNA marker and reverse osmosis filtered water at an alkali activated DNA marker concentration of 1 attogram per milliliter of filtered water to 1 microgram per milliliter of filtered water to form an alkaline activated DNA marker solution consisting only of alkali activated DNA, alkali activator and reverse osmosis filtered water;
• and
• emitting the alkaline activated DNA marker solution into the lint flue forced air stream via a delivery mechanism comprising one or more spray nozzles, whereby the alkaline activated DNA marker solution is mixed in the forced air stream to, thereby, coat the alkaline activated DNA marker solution on the raw cotton fiber lint to mark the raw cotton fiber lint.