Bast fibre

Bast fibre (fiber) or skin fibre is fibrecollected from the Phloem (the "inner bark"or the skin) or bast surrounding the stem of acertain, mainly dicotyledonic, plants. Most of the technically important bast fibers areobtained from herbs cultivated inagriculture, as for instance flax, hemp orrhamie, but also bast fibers from wild plants,as stinging nettle, and trees as the lime tree,have been used to some extent. Since thevaluable fibers are located in the phloem,they must often be separated from the xylemmaterial ("woody core"), and sometimes alsofrom epidermis. The process for this is calledretting, and can be performed bymicrooganisms either on land (nowadays themost important) or in water, or by chemicals(for instance high pH and chelating agents)or by pectinolytic enzymes.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

In the phloem bast fibers occur in bundlesthat are glued together by pectin and calciumions. More intense retting separate the fiberbundles into elementary fibers, that can beseveral cm long. The bast fibres have oftenhigher tensile strength than other kinds, andare therefore used for textiles (not seldomvery exclusive textiles, sometimes in blendswith cotton or synthetic fibers) ropes, yarn,paper, composites and burlap. A specialproperty of bast fibers are that the fibercontain a special structure,

the fiber node

,that represents a weak point. Fiber nodesseems not to be present in seed hairs ascotton.Examples are:

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Jute

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Industrial hemp

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Flax (Linen)

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Ramie

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Kenaf