Feasibility of Hard Fibers from Sanseviera Trifasciata (Snake Plant) as Fabric

Abstract

The extraction of natural fibres from plants and their uses for the production of fabrics and other woven or constructed textile materials has played a major role in textile development today. Thus, I investigated the potential of snake plant to produce natural fibreas a fabric, which would be acceptable in terms of its moisture regain, absorbency, crimp frequency, and linear density. Dried fibres from snake plant were subjected for fibre extraction using fibre-decorticating machine. The extracted fibres were then washed thoroughly and was wrung to remove excess liquids and other residues. The fibres were then sun-dried and were combed to remove any residues. The fibres had been chemo-mechanically softened, and were later spun using a spinning machine. The yarn was weaved using the weaving machine, and the fabric was then tested for moisture regain, absorbency, crimp frequency, and a linear density often replications. Results showed that fibres from Sansevieria trifasciata have no crimps with a recorded mean average of 0.1 crimps per fibre and 0.483 grams per cubic meter in linear density. Moistureregainsof 8.5% and a mean average of 40.8 seconds was recorded for the absorbancy respectively. This study indicated that Sansevieria trifasciata (Snake plant) is capable of producing fabric out of its hard fibres. It also proves that the soft and tough nature of the natural fibres can never be equated to the hard and coarse nature of the human-made nylon fibre especially when they are handled in tying or knotting of any type.