Evaluation of commercial cultivars of banana (Musa spp.) for their suitability for the fibre industry

摘要

Banana (Musa spp.) fibre has many and varied applications in the pulp and paper industry, as well as acting as a natural water purifier, and having uses in bioremediation and recycling, for printing currency, and also in the textile industry. Fibre isextracted from the plant pseudostem either manually or mechanically. Six commercial banana cultivars of different genomic groups (AAA, AAB and ABB) were tested to evaluate their suitability for use in the fibre industry. Various yield and quality components such as biomass production, fibre yield, total soluble solids, pH, total acidity, moisture content, total carbohydrates and total cellulose were analyzed. The fibre yield was found to be higher in AAB genomes, represented by Tachanadan' and Toovan',than the others. However, all the commercial varieties yielded good-quality fibre, as indicated by their cellulose content.