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Okra, a New Technical Bast Fiber: Its Comparison with Jute Fiber

ABSTRACT Okra bast fiber (OBF) is one of the underutilized natural bast fibers, extracted from the bark of the okra plant’s (Abelmoschus esculentus) stem. Globally, the okra crop is cultivated for its green immature fruit consumed as a vegetable. After fruit harvesting, the okra plants are treated as agro-waste. Worldwide, 62.11 lakh MT of green okra plant agro-waste is estimated annually. This agro-waste can be utilized to extract the technical bast fibers. The estimated production potential per hectare is 162 kg OBF and nearly 186 lakh kg OBF in the world. Extracted OBF has the potential to be utilized as commercial fiber-like jute fiber (JF). Therefore, the properties of extracted OBF were compared with those of JF in terms of linear density (tex), optical, tensile, and structural properties. OBF was extracted from the 120 ± 10 days old okra plant harvest waste through the water retting process (both flowing and stagnant water) in two different time intervals (17 and 25 days). Overall OBF showed better optical properties and similar or better tensile properties, while coarseness in its fineness than JF.