Kenaf fiber chemical treatments

Retted fibers such as jute and kenaf have three principal chemical constituents, namely, a-cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. The lignin can be almost completely removed by chlorination methods in which a soluble chloro-lignin complex is formed, and the hemicelluloses are then dissolved out of the remaining holocellulose by treatment with dilute alkali. The final insoluble residue is the a-cellulose constituent, which invariably contains traces of sugar residues other than glucose. 

Soutar and Brydon s results show no significant difference between H. cannabinus and H. sabdariffa, which is, perhaps, surprising in view of the difference between the two jute varieties, but the acetyl content does appear to offer a means of differentiating between jute and kenaf. For such a comparison to be valid, of course, there must have been no prior treatment of the fiber with alkali, which occasionally happens in chemical retting experiments. 

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