REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Banana is one of the most important fruit crop plants and belongs to the genus Musa.

After harvesting the fruit, the plant is cut down and thrown away, mostly as waste. The banana

plant is largely divided into three parts- pseudostem, peduncle and leaf. The pseudo stem portion

of the plant fiber is suitable for making ropes and twines (Saikia et al., 1997).

In 135 countries and territories across the tropics and subtropics, Bananas are being

produced. The majority producers are farmers who grow the crop for either home consumption

or for local markets (Bergh, Picq, & Vézina, 2013) .Banana is the second most produced fruit

after citrus. It has 16% contribution in the world’s total fruit production. It has also stated that

India is the most or the largest producer of banana in the world estimating up to 27% of banana’s

production. According to them the banana is useful in every part just like food, feed,

pharmaceutical, packaging, and many other industrial applications (Debabandya Mohapatra,

2010).

As stated by Vigneswara, Pavithra, Gayathri, and Mythili (2015), banana fibers have a

huge contribution for textile and packaging industry. However, the banana stem forms a major

source of waste material. But today, most of banana fibers are used for making ropes and

cordage. They have compositions, properties, and structures that are suitable for using in

industrial applications (Vigneswara, 2015).

Banana (Musa paradisiaca, family Musaceae) is a central fruit crop of the tropical and

subtropical regions of the world grown on about 8.8 million hectares (Mohapatra, Mishra, &

Sutar, 2010). It is possibly the world's oldest cultivated crop (Bhowmik, Duraveil, Kumar, &

Umadevi, 2012). It is one of the tallest herbaceous plants with a pseudostem. Its tough treelike
pliable stem is composed of the sheathing twisting leaf bases, which contains fibers of sufficient

strengths to keep the tree upright. In different countries, about 300 varieties of bananas are

grown, of which a vast majority are grown in tropical Asia (Simmonds, 1962).

Banana is one of most important fruit crops grown in India. With continuous increase of

production, huge quantity of waste biomass from Pseudo stem, burnt or left situ causing

detrimental impact on environment. They have available technologies for extraction of fibers and

paper making from Pseudo stem, but it is not being adopted in industries due to lack of

awareness (Ravindran, 2016).

In the study of Mohiuddin, Saha, Hossian, and Ferdoushi (2013), Banana is one of the

most important fruit crops grown everywhere in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, pseudo stem is

abandoned and is a hazardous waste while other countries used it to make different products. The

study provided the usefulness of banana, not only the fruit itself, but also the benefits of

recreation through banana pseudostem. They concluded that the research information they

gathered will be of immense help to the farmers, entrepreneurs, planners, scientists as well as the

Bangladesh government to take proper initiatives for the betterment of their nation.

The banana plant has a very juicy aerial stem, properly denoted as the pseudostem, which

is a clustered, cylindrical aggregation comprised of leaf stalk bases of leaf-petiole sheaths

(Fanquiero, Mukhopadhyay, Senturk, & Yusuf, 2008). There is also a subterranean stem, known

as the corm, as well as the part that supports the banana fruit, peduncle, stalk, or rachis. The

leaves and stalk of the pseudostem are disposed of after the fruit has been harvested.

Collectively, the waste of banana production is an estimated 220 tons of byproduct per hectare

annually (Padam et al., 2012).

 Banana has long been considered a food, fruit and fodder crop. In addition to this, now a

day, it is also gaining importance as a source of fiber. Annually about 1.5 million tons of dry

banana fibers can be produced from the outer sheath of pseudostem. Being a rich source of

natural fibers, the pseudostem can be profitably utilized for numerous applications and

preparation of various products (Bhowmik, Duraveil, Kumar, & Umadevi, 2012).

Banana pseudostem is a large biomass resource that is usually wasted, inspite of the

possibility that it can be used as a source of organic compounds such as cellulose and

hemicellulose (Pereira et al., 2014).The banana fiber spin ability and weaving performance were

invested, so that it can be used as a good substitute for jute in making of sacks and packaging

materials (Sinha, 1973).

It was concluded that banana fiber can replace certain percentage of Mesta, a cellulosic

fiber in the composition of agricultural ropes. The Mesta or allied fibers thus saved could be

more profitably be used for packaging textiles and other materials fiber yarn makes the cloth

brighter, impart better dyeing properties and can also be bleached. This additional outlet for the

products of banana plantations would benefit the farmer, but a prerequisite for economic use of

banana fiber will be a steady bulk supply, initially at a somewhat lower price than that of the

existing comparable fibers. The fibers are 1.5-2.7m long have a tensile strength and are

traditionally used for making ropes (Karolia, 2005).

Many authors, who have studied the utilization of banana pseudostem as a bioresource,

even using a biorefinery, usually consider the whole trunk as a uniform material (Akpabio et al.,

2012). However, the pseudostem can be separated into several sheaths. The physicochemical

properties of each sheath may be different, because they have different physiological ages and
functions. So, it could be possible to fractionate the same pseudostem in several sheaths, as a

simple physical pretreatment, and each group of sheaths can be used for the most suitable

application in accordance to its properties instead of using a mixture of all the fractions and

performing chemical treatments to separate each organic fraction (Gabhane et al., 2014).

Pseudostem and peduncle are the major source of fibre for banana. These fibers can be

used as raw material for making paper, cardboards, tea bags, and etc. The strong property of

pseudostem as a fiber is an advantage for it to be a main product for making a rope since it

contains a massive amount of cellulose. And cellulose contains an indigestible or insoluble

substance, making it hard (Preethl, 2013).

According to M.K.V Karthikeyan, A.N. D. Balaji and V. Vignesh ( 2016 ) Banana ribbon

is a new natural fiber, it has a polyester composites and have more improvement than a regular

fiber, they studied about the fiber and use electron microscope to probe the fiber matrix

interaction, and they learned that mat composites are used to fabricate windshield of cars and

mudguard of two wheelers.

Banana fibers are completely biodegradable, recyclable and are more environment

friendly than synthetic fibers both in terms of production and their disposal (Fanquiero,

Mukhopadhyay, Senturk, & Yusuf, 2008). Therefore, the banana products have export potential.

Unlike synthetic fibers which are largely produced from non-renewable resources, banana fibers

are made of renewable resources.

Rope Making and Production

Rope making from extracted banana fiber is called Banana fiber yarn. Rope making is

one of the most basic skills for converting any linear material into a usable stage (Manandhar,
2010). Rope is a length of fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength, for pulling and

connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength (Maleque et

al., 2007). There are actually three layers in the decaying bark of the banana tree. The outer layer

is the toughest and usually used for weaving items. The middle layer produces rope that is used

for thick cloth making and the inner layer which is the silkiest fibers is used for spinning yarns

and making fine clothing (Mohapatra, Mishra, & Sutar, 2010).

Early ropes were made of natural fibers twisted together by the hand or a machine

invented on earlier years called “spinner”. Spinner made rope making easy on early ages unlike

the old twisting method which could be done by braid or twisting the strands of the fibers which

could consume much time and effort. As early as 17,000 BC, the use of ropes from natural fibers

is evident because of the fossils found in Egypt. On the other hand, in Europe, they used the

ropewalk method in producing ropes. The fibers they used were hemp. But due to the shortage of

it, they tried another fiber coming from manila and sisal. The quality of manila fiber is as much

of sisal’s because sisal could withstand salt water. Recent years, ropes made from natural fibers

are not that popular to be used, since there are already stronger and lighter ropes made from

metal or nylon. These ropes are synthetic ropes. Ropes are effective depending on its usage and

characteristics. It could be used as climbing rope or suspension ropes/cables. Climbing rope does

not really need much strength but it must be flexible, and stretchable. Unlike the climbing ropes,

suspension cables must be strong because it is use to suspend bridges and other infrastructures

and flexibility is not that much required (Fronzaglia, 2006).

Ropes are made of fibers either naturally or synthetically. These fibers will be held

together to form yarns, the yarns will be twisted to each other to form strands, and those strands

will be rotated to each other to form a rope. Natural fibers are usually coming from twigs or parts
of plants, while the synthetic materials are usually coming from oil. Samples of natural fibers are

manila which come from the leaf stems of abaca plant which is the family of the banana; sisal

rope which is made from two different plants which are the sisalana and henequen; moreover

there are a lot of plants that are being used to make natural ropes, to make it to its highest quality,

chemicals are being added. Manila fiber is relatively strong and elastic. Based on Maleque,

Belal, Sapuan (2007)’s Mechanical properties of study of pseudo stem banana fiber reinforced

epoxy composite, there are high source of banana fibers in the waste banana trunks or stems

which aren’t used in places around the world. Therefore, composites of high-strength pseudo

stem banana woven fabric reinforcement polymer can be used in a broad range of applications.

They have concluded that with the use of epoxy material the flexural strength of banana woven

fabric is increased and the tensile strength is increased 90% compared to virgin epoxy. Sample of

synthetic fibers are nylon and Polypropylene which are made up of refined oil and are stronger

than natural fibers and lighter. Nowadays threads, wires and metals are being used to make

stronger ropes which are lighter and the diameter is smaller. Fiber ropes can be characterized

depending on its size, weight, and strength. Mostly, fiber ropes have a diameter of 5/8 inch and

12 inches circumference. The weight of the rope varies upon the use of it and depending also

upon the weather conditions it will be use. The strength of the rope is calculated based on the

stress it could handle without breaking. Fiber rope will last if it was carefully handled. Unlike the

synthetic ropes, fiber ropes must be used with extra care and must be keep on dry, cool and

clean places so it will not easily distort.

Potential of Varnish in Increasing Durability of Material

 Varnish is often and generally used as a top coat for finished products. It is mainly

composed of oil, resin, solvent, dryers and ultraviolet additives. It is widely used because of its

durability which is due to the higher ratio of solids as its component (Hill, 2013).

In the study made by Kaygin and Akgun (2008), different types of varnish (cellulosic,

polyurethane, polyester, synthetic and Nanolacke ultraviolet) were used to apply on beech (Fagus

orientalis L.) and oak (Quercus robur L.) wood as samples for experimentation. It was concluded

that the use of different types of wood does not have any significant effect on varnish hardness

and resistance, but there are significant differences about the types of varnish that they used.

The components of varnish represent the effect of the properties like for example the

brightness, toughness and lastly the fastness of the surface sticking resistance of the varnish

(Mehta, 2012). Adequate adhesion of the varnish layer on the wood surface may not be attained

if the moisture content is too high. This puts the banana leaf at risk because the pseudostem of a

banana stem consists of water. It is claimed in the literature that, in some cases, the presence of

excess moisture in the wood creates layer defects in polyester, polyurethane and some other

reaction curing varnishes. It is also stated that, especially in polyurethane varnish applications

which is cured by allophone formation, high moisture content inhibits the drying and reacting of

varnish (Budacki, 2009).

The varnish oil is responsible for longer effect of the varnish through the wood or fiber.

The oil helps the varnish to penetrate easily into the wood, thus the color of the wood or the

varnish will remain the same even on high exposure to sunlight and changes in weather for quite

longer time. The phenolic resin is responsible for water and chemical resistance due to its effect

of dry and hard coating to the wood. For the right blending of the color, right thickness and
leveling of the varnish, solvents are being used. The resin content is not affected even though

solvents are being mixed. Varnish has a property of drying in quite short time due to the driers,

which are being added for the varnish to dry easily, maintain the color, and be stable for quite

longer time. Lastly, additives are being mixed together with the main components of varnish

such as the ultraviolet absorber, surface stabilizer and anti-oxidants for added protection (Yacht

Paint, 2008).

The above mentioned materials will be used in creating binding ropes which are tested to

determine if the product can also be used as an alternative to commercially made binding ropes.

Each rope will be tested to determine if there is a significant difference between the effects of

different varnish solutions.

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