Fibers

David S. Seigler
Department of Plant Biology
University of Illinois
Urbana, Illinois 61801 USA

seigler@life.illinois.edu
http://www.life.illinois.edu/seigler
 Fibers from plants -
Outline

Importance
o Historical
o Present-day
o Synthetic fibers
Botanical
o What are fibers?
o Plant families
Fiber types
o Seed hairs or fibers
+ Isolation and
processing
o Soft or bast fibers
+ Isolation and
processing
o Hard or vascular fibers
+ Isolation and
processing
Other classifications
o Textile or apparel fibers
o Plaiting or coarse fibers
+ Cordage fibers
+ Brushes or braiding
fibers
+ Stuffing materials
+ Paper
Economic Importance
 Reading

• CHAPTER 15 IN THE TEXT, 355

ff.
 Introduction

• Cotton fibers were gathered,

spun and twisted at least
10,000 years ago in Peru.
• Flax was woven and
domesticated in the Near East
at least 8000 years ago (at
least 1000 years before the
domestication of sheep).
• Animal fibers such as wool have also
been widely used. Flax replaced wool
in Europe for clothing.
• To a botanist, a fiber is an
elongated cell with thick walls and
tapering ends.
• In commerce, fibers may be single
cells or hundreds of cells. Fibers
may vary from fractions of a mm to 2
meters in length.
• Most plant fibers are
comprised of cellulose. They
are more stable to heat than
are animal fibers.
• Plant fibers also have
different properties when dyed
and usually require more
complex treatments to cause
adherence of the dyes.
• Many fibers are too slick,
short or brittle to be spun
into threads.
• Kapok fiber is too slick to
spin into thread, but is used
to make stuffing or packing.
• Some fibers are used to make
paper.
• Fibers can be classified by their
uses (see p. 356) or the part of the
plant they are from.
• Fibers are used for textiles,
brushes, plaiting or coarse weaving,
stuffing material, paper and
specialty goods.
• Cotton, flax, ramie, and hemp are
most often used for apparel or
textile fibers.
• Jute, cotton, hemp, abacá, sisal, New
Zealand flax, and Mauritius hemp are
most often used for cordage.
• Istle, sisal, piassava (palm),
and broomcorn (a Sorghum bicolor
cultivar) are most often used
for brushes or braiding fibers.
• Kapok, cotton, Spanish moss, and
jute are most often used for
filling fibers.
 Textile fibers

• Textile fibers are primarily

grouped into seed and fruit
fibers; soft or bast fibers; and
hard or leaf fibers.
• Bast fibers come from the phloem
tissues of dicotyledonous plants.
• Hard fibers come from the leaves
of certain monocotyledonous
plants.
 Bast fibers
• Bast fibers are removed from plant
material by retting.
• The cell walls of soft, bast or true
fibers are cellulose and are not
easily broken down by bacteria.
• In retting, the plant material is
placed in water or kept wet, while
anaerobic bacteria digest away most of
the plant tissue except the fibers.
• See p. 362, 363, 364.
• The remaining material is bent
sharply to break the remaining
vascular material away from the
true fibers.
• The material is then beaten and
scraped (scutching) and the
fibers combed to align them
(hackling).
• For hard fibers, the plant
material is crushed and soft
tissue scraped away. this process
is called decorticating.
• Ginning is used to remove seed
fibers from the seeds. The fibers
are also combed and cleaned.
• Fibers may then be bleached or
otherwise treated to prepare them
for use.
 Seed and fruit fibers

• The most important seed fiber is

cotton (Gossypium spp., Malvaceae).
Cotton seeds have properties that
permit them to be spun into thread.
• Cotton is the most important fiber in
the world today, and is, according to
some sources, the most important
nonfood plant commodity.
• Cotton production today is highly
mechanized in most countries. This
plant produces textiles that dye well
and withstand vigorous washings.
• Cotton is an epidermal hair of the
seed coat. There are both short
(linters) and long hairs.
• The short hairs are removed before
the seeds are used for oil
expression.
Cotton, Gossypium
hirsutum, flower
and boll
Mature cotton and mature boll
Cotton gin and cotton bales in
Oklahoma
• Cotton was domesticated in both the
Old and New World (different
species). The ancestry of cotton is
complex and there is not complete
agreement about these origins.
• Cotton was domesticated in south
central Asia and fabrics from
Pakistan appear about 3000 B.C.
These were from either G. arboreum
or G. herbaceum.
• By the 15th century, cultivation of
these two species had reached into
Europe from the Arabs.
• Both have largely been replaced by
New World cultivars.
• Two species of cotton were also
domesticated in the New World.
• Both involve an Old World parent;
genes from this parent are now
estimated to have arrived in the
Americas more than one million
years ago.
• Columbus observed cotton in the
New World when he came to America.
• Gossypium hirsutum (upland or West
Indian) cotton accounts for 95% of
the cotton cultivated.
• G. barbadense, sea island,
Egyptian, or Pima cotton was
probably cultivated earlier and
was used by about 8000 B.C.
• Weaving was an integral part of
the culture in the Inca Empire in
the 13th and 14th centuries.
• Cotton did not become a major crop,
however, until 1794 when Eli
Whitney invented the cotton gin.
• Cotton then became the major crop
in many areas of the Southeastern
U.S.
• The cultivation of cotton was one
of the major factors that led to
slavery in the U.S.
• The invention of the cotton gin
permitted cotton to be the basis
of a one crop economy.
• This one crop economy was
destroyed by the boll weevil
about 1900.
• Since that time, agriculture has
diversified greatly in the South.
• Cotton fibers are then processed
extensively. See pg. 365. The
fibers are carded, and twisted into
slivers.
• The fibers are then drawn, cleaned
(washed with caustic soda),
mercerized (soaked with NaOH under
pressure), and finally sized with
substances such as starch or gels.
• After being woven, the fabrics are
treated with ammonia to reduce
shrinkage on washing.
• Permanent press fabrics now
decrease the need for ironing.
• The former USSR, China, USA, and
India are major cotton producing
countries.
• Cotton seed is widely used as an
edible oil source. There are some
problems with toxicity however.
 Bast fibers

• Bast or soft fibers are thick

walled cells from
dicotyledonous plants.
• The fibers seem to support the
phloem cells.
• Fibers may be up to 2 meters
long and are usually isolated
by retting.
• Most can be bleached or dyed.
 Jute (Corchorus capsularis,
Tiliaceae)
• Jute is the most common bast
fiber and is second only to
cotton in terms of production.
• Jute is widely used for
sacking and similar material.
• The species is native to the
Mediterranean from where it
spread throughout the Near and
Far East. The plants are
herbaceous annuals.
• Jute fibers don't hold up too
well because they are brittle.
• Today most jute comes from India,
China, and Bangladesh.
Jute, Corchorus olitorius,
Tiliaceae
Flax (Linum usitatissimum, Linaceae)
• Flax is one of the oldest fibers used
by man. It was used at least 10,000
years ago by the Swiss Lake Dwellers
and Egyptian mummies were wrapped in
linen 5,000 years ago. Carvings and
paintings in their tombs document its
cultivation.
• The Greeks and Romans also used linen
and the Romans spread its use
throughout Europe.
• Although flax originated in the Near
East, it is not known to occur in the
wild today and the exact site of
origin is not known.
 Flax, Linum
usitissimum, Linaceae
• The fibers are straight and
two to three times as strong
as cotton.
• The cultivation of flax was
very important in much of
Europe until replaced by
other fibers.
• Cotton only replaced linen
in the 1800's.
• Cotton has replaced linen mostly
because of economics. It is
easier and cheaper to grow and
utilize.
• Hand processed flax is usually of
much better quality than machine
processed.
• Basically, flax and linen have
become too expensive for common
use in most parts of the world.
• Flax is often "dew retted" in the
field. Retting flax also causes
tremendous pollution problems and
it is seldom done today in
western Europe.
• Both Belgium and Ireland import
most of their flax from Poland
and the former Soviet Union.
• China is another major producer.
 Hemp
(Cannabis sativa, Cannabaceae)
• True hemp comes from the same plant
as marijuana. The plant has mostly
been grown as a fiber and has been
cultivated since prehistoric times.
It was grown in China as early as
4000 B.C.
• The fibers are extracted by retting,
scutching, and pounding. Typically
hemp is used for cordage, rope,
canvas, and sailcloth. Jeans were
originally made from hemp cloth.
• Most hemp fiber today comes from the
USSR and India.
Hemp, Cannabis
sativa,
Cannibaceae
 Leaf or hard fibers
• The widespread use of these
fibers is fairly recent. As they
are comprised of vascular
systems, the cells are small and
bound together by pectins. They
cannot be isolated by retting.
• They are decorticated. The fibers
are too stiff to be used to make
fabrics. They make better quality
ropes than bast fibers however.
• Most good quality hard fibers
come from Agave or Musa.
 Sisal and henequén

• Sisal comes from the leaves of

Agave sisilana and henequén from
the leaves of A. fourcroyoides.
• They are native to Mexico and
Central America and the Mayas and
Aztecs used them to make crude
fabrics.
• The spines of the plant were used
for needles.
 Sisal, Agave
sisilana,
Agavaceae, in
Tamaulipas,
Mexico

Courtesy Dr. Ken Glander

 Harvesting and
transporting sisal
leaves
Courtesy Axel Walther and Dr. Ken Glander
• The leaves are cut at the base,
carried to the factory, rolled
and the water squeezed out, and
the other mushy tissues scraped
away from the fibers.
• The fibers are then washed and
hung out in the sun.
• They can be dyed directly.
 Decorticating
leaves of sisal
Courtesy Axel Walther
 Sisal fiber
bleaching in the
sun
 Processing sisal
fiber
Courtesy Axel Walther and Dr. Ken Glander
• Although henequén is still
mostly grown in Mexico, sisal
is now cultivated in many
parts of the world.
• Sisal is important in Brazil,
East Africa, Madagascar, and
other arid areas.
 Abacá or Manila hemp (Musa
textilis, Musaceae)

• Abacá is native to southeast Asia.

The fibers come mostly from the leaf
bases.
• The plant is now grown in many parts
of the tropics.
• It is used to make things such as
"Manila" envelopes as well as cloth.
• The fibers are isolated in much the
same way as those of sisal and
henequen.
 Abacá or Manila hemp (Musa
textilis, Musaceae)

www.paperlan.com/paperlan-pulpas.html http://www.globalhemp.com/News/2004/October/daim
ler-chrysler-to-use.php
 Abacá or
Manila hemp,
Musa
textilis,
Musaceae

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/11156351/Aba
ca_Natural_Fiber__Manila_Hemp__Musa_Texti
lis.jpg
 Broom corn, Sorghum bicolor,
Poaceae

Broom corn (Sorghum bicolor) is used to make brushes and brooms.

 Fibers from palms

• Many types of fibers are isolated

from palms in the tropics.
• Piassava fiber is a coarse, tough,
and water resistant fiber used for
brushes, brooms, mats, and
cordage. It comes from several
species of palms.
• Crin vegetal comes from a small
fan-palm that is common in
northwestern Africa.
 Crin vegetal,
Chamaerops
humilis, Arecaceae
Palmetto, Sabal
minor, Arecaceae

Palmettos were
used by many
American
Indians in the
southeastern U.S.
as a source
of fiber and for
construction of
houses.