EXTRACTION OF LEAF FIBERS FROM CORDYLINE FRUTICOSA "TI PLANT".
INTRODUCTION:
Cordyline fruticosa is an evergreen flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. The plant is of great cultural importance to the traditional animistic religions of Austronesian and Papuan peoples of the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Island Southeast Asia, and Papua New Guinea. It is also cultivated for food, traditional medicine, and as an ornamental for its variously colored leaves. It is identified by a wide variety of common names, including ti plant, palm lily, cabbage palm. Its original native distribution is unknown, but it is believed to be native to the region from Bangladesh, to Mainland Southeast Asia, South China, Taiwan, Island Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Northern Australia. It has the highest morphological diversity in New Guinea and is believed to have been extensively cultivated there. It was carried throughout Oceania by Austronesians, reaching as far as Hawaii, New Zealand (including the Kermadec Islands), and Easter Island at their furthest extent. A particularly important type of ti in eastern Polynesia is a large green-leafed cultivar grown for their enlarged edible rhizomes. Unlike the ti populations in Southeast Asia and Near Oceania, this cultivar is almost entirely sterile in the further islands of eastern Polynesia. It can be propagated only by cuttings from the stalks or the rhizomes. It is speculated that this was the result of deliberate artificial selection, probably because they produce larger and less fibrous rhizomes more suitable for use as food. The roots and young leaves can be cooked and eaten as survival food. The leaves can make a rain cloak. The plants are also widely used for traditional medicine, dye, and ornamentation throughout Austronesia and New Guinea.In Polynesia, the leaves of the green-leafed form are used to wrap food, line earth ovens and fermentation pits of breadfruit, and their rhizomes harvested and processed into a sweet molasses-like pulp eaten like candy or used to produce a honey-like liquid used in various sweet treats. In Hawaii, the roots mixed with water and fermented are also distilled into an alcoholic beverage known as okolehao. Fibers extracted from leaves are also used in cordage and in making bird traps. The consumption of ti as food, regarded as a sacred plant and thus was originally taboo, is believed to have been a daring innovation of Polynesian cultures as a response to famine conditions. The lifting of the taboo is believed to be tied to the development of the firewalking ritual.
PROCESS:
1. Wetting the ti plant leaves in hot water for 24 hours
2. Brushing the ti plant leaves manually to remove non fibrous content
3. Softening the fibers by alkali treatment
4. Drying the extracted fibers for 1 hour
We claim;
1. This fiber has good staple length of 7-10 cm.
2. This fiber has good tensile strength.
3. This fiber is naturally decomposable.
4. This fiber is fully processed in a natural way.