The present disclosure provides a method to isolate natural & artificial nucleic acids like deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA) and peptide nucleic acid (PNA) from a solid or liquid sample using cotton. The cotton packed is such that, a solution containing nucleic acids passes through it and the nucleic acids in solution are bound to the cotton in a medium optimal for binding. The nucleic acids are bound to cotton in such a way that, the bound nucleic acids can withstand multiple washes with liquid comprising water and gets eluted in an aqueous buffer, with which eluted nucleic acids can be directly used for amplification using PCR or for any other biochemical or molecular biology needs.