Introduction

 Banana fiber is a natural fiber with high strength, which can be blended easily with cotton fiber or other synthetic fibers to
produce blended fabric & textiles. Banana Fiber also finds use in high-quality security/ currency paper, packing cloth for
agriculture produce, ships towing ropes, wet drilling cables etc.

 Banana fiber, a lignocellulosic fiber, obtained from the pseudo-stem of banana plant (Musa sepientum), is a bast fiber with
relatively good mechanical properties.

 Plant fibers are sclerenchymatous cells with heavily lignified cell walls having a narrow lumen in cross section. Fiber cells are
dead at maturity and serve as a support tissue.

 Natural fibers possess several advantages over synthetic fibers such as low density, appropriate stiffness and mechanical
properties and also high disposability and renewability. Also, they are recyclable and biodegradable.

 Banana fibers can be used for various purposes such as in textile, paper or handicrafts industry. Banana paper is versatile as it
is waterproof and stronger than wood-pulp paper, meaning it can be used in packaging and even as a basis for building
materials
 Structure and Usage of Banana Fiber

 Banana fiber is multiple celled structures. The lumens are large in relation to the wall thickness. Cross markings are rare and
fiber tips pointed and flat, ribbons like individual fiber diameter range from 14 to 50 microns and the length from 0.25 cm to
1.3 cm, showing the large oval to round lumen.

 The ‘‘pseudo-stem’’ is a clustered, cylindrical aggregation of leaf stalk bases. Banana fiber at present is a waste product of
banana cultivation and either not properly utilized or partially done so.

 The extraction of fiber from the pseudostem is not a common practice and much of the stem is not used for the production of
fibers. The buyers for banana fibers are erratic and there is no systematic way to extract the fibers regularly. Useful
applications of such fibers would regularize the demand which would be reflected in a fall in the prices.

 Bast fibers, like banana, are complex in structure. They are generally lignocellulosic, consisting of helically wound cellulose
microfibrils in an amorphous matrix of lignin and hemicellulose. The cellulose content serves as a deciding factor for
mechanical properties along with microfibril angle.

 A high cellulose content and low microfibril angle impart desirable mechanical properties for bast fibers. Lignins are composed
of nine carbon units derived from substituted cinnamyl alcohol; that is, coumaryl, coniferyl, and syringyl alcohols. Lignins are
associated with the hemicelluloses and play an important role in the natural decay resistance of the lignocellulosic material.