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/daimlerchrysler-to-use.php
Abacá or Manila
hemp, Musa
textilis, Musaceae
http://img.alibaba.com/photo/11156351/Abaca_Natural_
Fiber__Manila_Hemp__Musa_Textilis.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.