Potential of natural fiber based on plant characteristics

Abstract

Natural fiber is one of the prospective non-timber forest products that contribute to the augmentation of a nation’s foreign exchange within the forestry industry. The objective of this research is to ascertain the distinguishing features of several species of plants that produce natural fiber, and to evaluate the prospective applications of these fibers. The study approach commences by conducting tests on the physical qualities, followed by analysing the chemical components with the established TAPPI method. Additionally, tests are conducted to assess dimensional analyses and fiber variants. The result indicated that the examination of the physical characteristics of the specimens, namely their specific gravity and water content, yielded a strong classification falling within the range of II-IV. The study of chemical constituents, including extractives, lignin, and cellulose, across all samples yielded a range of 1.27% to 7.64%, 15.88% to 36.55%, and 24.63% to 68.32%, respectively. Similarly, the findings from the analysis of fiber dimension measurements indicate that the fiber length category ranges from fairly short to very long.