Characterization of Ligno-cellulosic fibers from Wild turmeric (Curcuma aromatica) petiole for potential textile applications

The rhizomes of the wild turmeric plant are harvested while the aerial part is discarded as waste. The current study aims to extract fibers (WTPF) from the petiole portion of the wild turmeric plant by manual (mechanical) retting using metal comb. The fiber extraction is carried out at two stages: the first extraction yielded long and strong fibers (WTPF-1) ranging in length between 20 and 40 cm and the second extraction from the residual biomass yielded comparatively shorter fibers (WTPF-2) ranging in length between 1 and 5 cm. The extracted fibers are evaluated for physical, chemical, thermal, structural and morphological properties. The diameter of both the fibers is observed to be 20 µm and the tensile strength is 2.17 Mpa. The fibers exhibited significant difference in their properties, say the hemi-cellulose content, elongation at break, density, young’s modulus while the cellulose, lignin, wax, pectin, ash and moisture content did not vary much. Based on the properties, the WTPF fiber has potential application in technical textiles field as it could be made into non-wovens and composites.