New Zealand flax

Methylation of a purified alkaline-soluble polysaccharide from New Zealand flax is accomplished by subjecting it to five successive methyla-... 

New Zealand Flax (Phormium te-nax) Narrow, cylindrical, no striae Narrow, about 3-10 8-19 (12) Greenish-yellow... 

Description of Fibres of Vegetable Origin.—The most important vegetable textile fibres, which will be described below, are cotton, flax, hemp, ramie, jute, agave, pita and sisal, New Zealand flax, esparto, Manila... 

New Zealand Flax. This is obtained especially from the leaves of Phormium tenetx. The fibres are united in bundles—which are readily disaggregated—and are very thin, uniform and smooth, with a peculiar appearance of rigidity the lumen is very distinct and occupies about one-third of the fibre (Fig. 80, Plate VIII). The ends are acute. The cross-sections of unbleached fibres are united in bundles which are polygonal with rounded angles they are only weakly joined and the lumen is rounded and free from contents. By iodine and sulphuric add, the raw fibres are coloured yellow, while bleached fibres assume a greenish or blue colour and then show marked flexibility. 

One of the first acidic xylans to receive a detailed investigation was that from New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax)87 [a monocotyledonous plant entirely unrelated to flax (Linum sp.)], for which polysaccharide the following partial structure (XXVII) was advanced. The experimental evidence is also consistent with the direct attachment of D-glucuronic acid residues... 

Rept. 5, A Report on the Leaf Fibers of the United States, Detailing Results of Recent Investigations Relating to Florida Sisal Hemp, the False Sisal Hemp Plant of Florida, and Other Fiber-Producing Agaves Bowstring Hemp, Pineapple Fiber, New Zealand Flax, and Bear Grass, 1893. 

Leaf fibers Pineapple, Banana, Sisal, Pine, Abaca (Manila hemp), Curaua, Agaves, Cabuja, Henequen, Date-palm, African palm. Raffia, New Zealand flax, Isora Seed (hairs) fibers Cotton, Kapok, Coir, Baobab, Milkweed Stalk fibers Bamboo, Bagasse, Banana stalk, Cork stalk Fruit fibers Coconut, Oil palm Wood fibers Hardwood, Softwood... 

Phormium. The Phormium tenax plant yields a long, light-colored, hard fiber also known as New Zealand hemp or flax, although it has none of the bast fiber characteristics. The plant is a perennial of the Agavaceae with leaves up to 4 m long and 10 cm wide. The fibers are recovered by mechanical decortication. 

Hemostatic system, 4 84-90 blood components, 4 82t Hemp, 11 292, 293. See also Mauritius hemp New Zealand hemp/flax Sunn hemp... 

The stem or root bark of various coprosma shrubs contains a number of anthraquinone dyes. It was used by the Maoris, the natives of New Zealand, for dyeing flax in orange shades. 

Vegetable fibres are also used to replace asbestos fibres, which are expensive and dangerous to health. Coconut fibres were tested for that purpose and their strength and deformability, as well as thermal and acoustic properties, and were proved comparable with those of asbestos fibres (Paramasivam et al. 1984). Similar tests on specimens reinforced with flax fibres from New Zealand and Australia also showed their ability to replace asbestos in thin cement sheets (Courts 1983). 

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