Taximetric study of some wild plant species with potential for pulp and paper making

The pulp and paper potentials of four wild plant species, namely Jatropha curcas, J. podagrica, Sida acuta and Ricinus communis were investigated. Pulp was produced by a soda pulping process at liquor to solid ratio 7: 1 and bleached with hydrogen peroxide in basic medium. The studied species were found to be good candidates for use as raw materials for pulp and paper production due to possession of appropriate raw material features (i.e. fibre length, fibre diameter, cell wall thickness, lumen density as well as Runkel ratio, flexibility coefficient and relative fibre length). The pulp yield of J. curcas, J. podagrica, Sida acuta and R. communis were 70%, 87%, 80% and 81% respectively. Thus, short fibres needed to produce good quality pulp and paper can be generated from the 4 studied plant species and they can compete favourably with other highly rated pulp and paper making materials.