Chemical composition of jute fibers

Climatic conditions, age, and the digestion process influence not only the structure of the
fibers but also the chemical composition. A general chemical composition of jute fibers is
given in Table 4.1. Jute fibers contain 60%–64% cellulose, 14%–16% pentason, 12%–14%
lignin, and other components like fats, pectin, ash content, moisture, etc.

The details of these constituents are given in the Appendix. The fiber thickness varies
between 40 and 80 µm, which leads to a variation in the tensile strength between 1000 and
480 MPa. Jute fibers can withstand up to 100°C in air without any decomposition.

Structure and chemical composition

Climatic conditions, age, and the degradation process influence not only the structure of
fibers, but also the chemical composition. The major chemical component of a living tree is
water. However, on a dry basis, all plant cell walls consist mainly of sugar-based polymers
(cellulose, hemicellulose) that are combined with lignin with lesser amounts of extractives,
protein, starch, and inorganics.

The chemical components are distributed throughout the cell wall, which is composed of
primary and secondary wall layers. The chemical composition varies from plant to plant, and
within different parts of the same plant. Table 2.2 [4–7] shows the range of the average
chemical constituents for a wide variety of plant types.