Physical, Chemical and Biological Nature of Plant Fibres

Plant fibres are defined in various ways by different stakeholders, often creating confusions. This review presents a holistic view of major commercial fibresof plant origin, revealing certain intriguing details of physical structure, chemical composition and biological origin of the fibres. These factors are crucial for the application of plant fibres in the area of coarse and fine textiles and also for other diversified applications. The review will be helpful to understand the reasons behind limited application range of each fibre and may answer to questions often heavily discussed in many fora – why we cannot make clothes out of jute or kenaf which will beas good as cotton, flax or ramie clothes.