RKZ

Rana kaashif Zulfiqar

06 – NTU – 174 Textile Raw Materials-I, TS-131

Chapter 4

Jute fibre

Botanical nomenclature of jute fibre:

Kingdom Plantae

Phylum Magnoliophyta (Angiospermophyta)

Class Magnoliopsida (Dicots)

Order Malvales (Mallow)

Family Tiliaceae

Genus Corchorus

Corchorus capsularis
Species
Corchorus olitorus

These two species are similar in general appearance but may be distinguished by certain
characteristics (differences) given below.
Corchorus capsularis
Seed pod (fruit) is round in shape.
Good resistant to water logging effect.
Fibres, white in colour, finer, shorter and
weaker.
Leaves have a bitter taste.
Leaf has rough surface on both sides.
Colour of stalk bark is light green to
purple.
Corchorus olitorus
Seed pod (fruit) is long cylindrical.
Very low resistant to water logging effect.
Golden yellow colour of fibres, more
luster, less fine, stronger and longer fibres.
Leaves have a sweet taste, or tasteless.
Leaves have shiny upper surface and rough
under surface.
Colour of stalk bark is light green to
reddish pink.

Major growing countries:

The major growing countries are India, Bangladesh, china, West Indies
and Pakistan.

Description about jute plant:

When grown for fibre production, plants are close together, near about 4”
distance is kept between two plants. Seeds are cultivated in February in lowlands and

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 RKZ
Rana kaashif Zulfiqar
06 – NTU – 174 Textile Raw Materials-I, TS-131

June in high-lands. Seeds of plant germinate in 3-5 days, and become mature after 120
days. Height of plant is 5-16 feet and average height of plant is 10-12 feet. Diameter of
stalk is 1/2”- 3/4”. The colour of leaf is light to medium green, 1.5”-2” wide and 4”-5” long
with serrated edges. Flowers of jute plant are small in size and pale yellow in colour.
The following conditions are necessary for jute plant growth.
1. High temperature 23°C-37°C, and high relative humidity. (R. H. % = 80-95%)
2. Rain fall over 40”, well distributed in intervals.
3. Sufficient supply of clean water.

Harvesting:
Plant becomes ready for harvesting in 120 days. Exact time of harvesting
is ‘shortly after flowering’ to the ‘before maturity of seed pods’. If delay is made in
harvesting, fibres will become coarse. For harvesting, 6-8 plants are together pulled by
hand or cut by sharp edge. Crop is left open in sun for 2-3 days, so that leaves become
dry and stripped by hand. Stalk is tied into bundles and is taken to retting ponds.

Preparation of jute fibre

Retting:
Retting is process by which the fibre bundles, which are just under the
bark of stalk, are prepared for removal from stalk. Essentially it consists of soaking the
stalk in water until the bacterial action makes it possible to loose the fibres within the
stalk. Pond retting is used for this purpose. Retting time is 12-25 days, and an
experienced person can best judge the completion of retting process. Over retting
degrades the quality of fibres.
In case of jute fibre, retting process is carefully done because when the top
portion of the stalk is retted, the thick lower portion (near base) still remains under retted.
If the lower portions are allowed to ret completely, the top portion becomes over retted.
To ensure uniform retting, the bundles of stem should be kept upright in about 2 feet of
water for 3-4 days, before they are completely steeped in water.
Dark coloured jute fibres are produced due to tannic acid in the jute plant
and the presence of iron (iron salts) in retting water. The tannic acid of jute plant and iron
of water interact and make a dark coloured complex, which dis-colours the jute fibre,
however small amount of tannic acid and iron do not affect the colour of fibres.
In order to avoid dis-colouration, the following practices are
recommended during retting process.
1. The ‘liquor ratio’ is important. If too much jute is retted in small amount of water
the concentration of tannic acid and iron increases beyond the safety limits, and
fibres get dis-coloured. Therefore volume of water should be about 75 cubic feet
per 100 lbs of jute stalk steeped.
2. Repeated and frequently steeping of jute in the same water should be discouraged.
3. Steeping of jute in muddy water should be avoided on account of high iron
contents of salt (iron salts). Steeping in clear water is the best process.
4. The leaves of jute plant contain more tannic acid than other parts of plant.
Therefore, plant should be kept for 3-4 days for leaves to shed, instead of retting
immediately after harvesting.

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 RKZ
Rana kaashif Zulfiqar
06 – NTU – 174 Textile Raw Materials-I, TS-131

Stripping of jute fibres:

Stripping means removal of jute fibres stem or stalk. The most common
method is that worker stands 2-3 feet deep in water (retting water), takes in his left hand,
6-10 stems and beat the bark round the base of stem gently with a wooden mallet. The
fibres at the bottom become loose. He then breaks the woody core about 1-2 feet from the
base. With slight jerks the pieces of broken stem from the base are taken out and thrown
on dry ground. The loose fibres are gripped by right hand and remaining portion of retted
stem is moved forward and backward in water, thereby separating the fibres from the
stalk. Clean fibres are dried in sun for 2-3 days and tied into bundles. A worker can strip
40 lbs per day working for 6-7 hours. A highly skilled worker can strip up to 80 lbs of
fibres in same period. Production of green stalk of jute is 29,000lbs-30,000lbs per acre,
which gives 1200lbs-1400lbs per acre of jute fibres which is 5% of green stalk.
In another simple method of stripping the retted stems are stripped singly.
The retted bundles are taken out of water and adhering water drained off. The worker
sitting on the edge of the pond hold the root end of the stem in his left hand and separates
the lower ends of fibre of each plant. When the fibres of all stems become loose at the
bottom, fibres are gently pulled apart from the stem. This method gives better quality
fibres than other method.

Properties of Jute fibre:

Commercial jute fibres are yellow to brown or grey in colour. It consists of

bundles of individual cells held together by gumming material lignin. Jute
Colour:
feels rough and coarse to touch, although best qualities are smooth. The
individual cells of jute are 2-6mm long on average.
Tensile strength 65,000 lbs / in2 -125000 lbs / in2
Fibre
Tenacity 32 g/TEX “Or” 3.5 g/denier
strength:
It is not as strong as, nor is it durable.

Density of fibre: 1.52 g / cm3

Moisture regain:
Moisture contents:
Elongation at break:
Elastic properties:
Effect of age:
13.75%
12.09%
1.7 %. It does not stretch to any appreciable extent.
Jute tends to be a stiff fibre (inelastic) owing to part played by
the material which cements the cells together.
If kept dry, jute will last for longer period. Moisture
encourages deterioration of jute which loses strength with age.

Utilization of Jute fibre:

The jute fibre is cheap and reasonably strong fibre, with tensile strength is
65000lbs/seq.inch. These characters enabled it to become an important fibre for packing
cloth. The principle use of jute has been bagging and wrapping fabrics for agricultural
products, giving it a close and important relationship to economy of world food supply.
The hairiness can be disadvantageous when jute sacks are used for food storage. The
fibre ends may break away and contaminate food.

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 RKZ
Rana kaashif Zulfiqar
06 – NTU – 174 Textile Raw Materials-I, TS-131

Other consumer and industrial uses include yarn for carpet backing,
electrical insulations, wrapping twines* and cordage tarpaulin† carpets and rugs. In
Germany and Italy, a process was developed by treating jute waste fibre with strong
solution of NaOH (caustic soda), resulted in a fibre that could be blended with wool
which was used for manufacturing of very inexpensive clothing fabrics.
Since around 1964, when first break through to cut the monopoly of jute
carpet backing was made by introducing synthetic carpet backing, a number of trials were
carried out for a suitable material for carpet backing. It was then established that jute
backing has so many favourable points that it becomes ideally suited as carpet backing
when compared to synthetic material.
1. Dimensional and thermal stability, i.e. jute does not get deform at elevated
temperature.
2. Jute backing has that sort of body which gives a sense of lofty feelings.
3. Jute carpet backing is found much better than synthetic backing as for as
resistance properties are concerned.
4. It doesn’t give toxic fumes as synthetic fibres do.
5. the high density carpet with jute backing are found very suitable in areas of heavy
traffic load such as cinema, supermarkets, hospitals, banks, educational
institutions and public places.
6. Acceptance of dye to jute fibre is easy as compared to synthetic fibres.
7. The ever increasing price as well as non-availability of petrochemical products is
boosting the use of jute carpet backing because jute has all alone accepted as a
low cost high performance fibre.

*
to make something by weaving or twisting separate strands together
†
a heavy waterproof material, especially treated canvas, used as a covering and to protect things from
moisture

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