Fibre extraction and preparation

The fibres that were desaibed above as being used for natural geotextiles, are usually extracted from four varieties of the woody-stemmed herbaceous dicotyledons (i.e. the bast fibres flax, jute, hemp and kenaf), one of the monocotyledonous plants (i.e. sisal) and one of Palmaceae (palms) (i.e. coir) [13, 14]. 

These fibre-containing plants have their own distinctive attributes and Table 11.5 gives a short account of these, also the principal producing countries and the relative percentages of the global production of natural organic fibres used commercially. 

All bast fibres are extracted from their plants by a retting process which frees the fibre from the hurd and is then followed by scutching to separate and remove the fibres from the bark and hurd. 

Bast (phloem) layer containing bast fibres 

Cortex thin layer of wall cells containing chlorophyll but no fibre 

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