Abstract
Caryota urens, commonly known as Indian Sago palm, Wine palm, Toddy palm, Fish tail palm and Salap in Odia, is naturally found in almost all districts of Odisha. The palm produces three things, viz., fibre from leaf, sheath, frond and flowering stalk, drink from inflorescence stalk and sago from stem. The coarse fibre extracted mechanically by beating leaf sheath, petiole and flowering stalk is called kittul. In this work an attempt has been made to extract the fine kittul fibre by cooking leaves in 0.5% (W/V) urea and water solution followed by retting in the cold solution of same concentration for 18 days. The rope, cordage, etc. prepared from Kittul fibre is as strong as plastic fibre and is also biodegradable.
Keywords
Caryota urens, Indian Sago palm, Wine palm, Toddy palm, Fish tail palm, Salap, Kittul fibre, Retting