New Types of Natural Fibers & Uses

As we all know, conventional textile natural fibers mainly consist of cotton and bast fibers, while animal fibers cover wool and silk. has utilized these fibers for an extremely long time. With advances in science and technology, the integration of emerging disciplines including bioengineering, genetic engineering and nanotechnology with textile engineering has been deepening continuously.

In the field of natural fibers, on the premise of maximizing their inherent merits, experts keep adopting high-end physical, chemical and biological technologies to modify existing fibers or develop brand-new natural textile fibers. Such innovations aim to satisfy people’s growing demands for textile materials in terms of comfort, aesthetics, safety and environmental friendliness. This paper elaborates on the properties and applications of newly developed and commercially applied novel natural fibers at present.

New Type Plant Fibers

1、Natural Colored Cotton Fibers

Natural colored cotton fibers come from transgenic technology. Researchers transfer color cotton genes into the DNA of ordinary cotton, which produces naturally pigmented cotton fibers.

Textiles made of colored cotton skip bleaching and dyeing processes entirely. They satisfy people’s demand for diverse eco-friendly hues and align with the global trend of environmental protection and returning to nature.

Compared with white cotton, colored cotton has lower yields and inferior quality. Its fibers are shorter in staple length, weaker in tensile strength and lower in micronaire value. Besides, colored cotton shows uneven uniformity and a high short-fiber content rate.

Even so, finished natural colored cotton fabrics deliver great wear performance. They feel soft and stretchy, offering outstanding comfort and safety to wearers. Such materials work perfectly for items that touch skin directly, including underwear, T-shirts, shirts, infant clothing, towels and bedding supplies.

2、Hemp Fibers

Hemp, also known as Chinese hemp or fire hemp, ranks among the earliest textile fibers cultivated in China. Ancient people relied on it to make clothes for warmth and covering their bodies.

Hemp barely attracts pests during its growth and storage cycles. Its fiber cross-section takes on an irregular round or polygonal shape with a rough surface. Plenty of cracks and pores run lengthwise along the fiber and connect to its central lumen. For this reason, hemp fibers boast strong adsorption capacity and outstanding moisture absorption and sweat release functions. Fabrics woven from hemp absorb and release moisture efficiently, so garments made of this material stay cool and breathable on the body.

Single hemp fibers feature fine fineness, lending fabrics a smooth and soft hand feel. Unlike other bast fiber textiles, hemp fabrics create no harsh itch or rough texture without extra finishing treatments. Furthermore, hemp textiles deliver remarkable antibacterial effects against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans.

For a long time, limited progress in degumming—the pre-treatment process for hemp spinning—held back its wider application. Poor fiber uniformity and weak cohesion between fiber bundles created obvious obstacles to spinning production. After breakthroughs in hemp degumming technology in the 1980s, hemp has evolved into a vital natural textile raw material.

Reports show that domestic casual fabrics blended with hemp, pure cotton and natural colored cotton have spawned a full range of casual wear that draws wide popularity. These fabrics combine hemp’s unique properties and feature soft texture, muted colors and a rugged natural style.

Hemp mixes well with all other textile fibers. Blends of hemp and wool even resist moth damage. With inherent health benefits, hemp textiles suit daily items that contact skin closely, such as socks, shoe insoles, underwear and bedding.

3、Apocynum Venetum Fibers

Apocynum venetum, also called wild hemp or dogbane flower, is a wild plant fiber. It shares typical strengths of bast fibers including great moisture absorption, superior air permeability and high tensile strength. On top of these advantages, apocynum venetum fibers feel soft, sleek and silky, making them ideal raw materials for high-end textiles.

The fiber cross-section is round or oval, with vertical stripes and horizontal nodes along its longitudinal surface. Its staple length ranges from 15 mm to 70 mm, fineness from 17 μm to 23 μm, breaking strength from 7.0 cN/dtex to 7.9 cN/dtex, and breaking elongation sits between 3% and 4%.

Modern scientific tests prove that apocynum venetum fibers contain abundant medicinal ingredients similar to those in its leaves and blossoms. The fiber delivers natural far-infrared performance and natural antibacterial properties. Wearing products made of this fiber helps boost human immunity. For this reason, garments, bedding and other goods made with apocynum venetum fiber carry healthcare benefits and gain higher added value.

Apocynum venetum fibers are relatively short and thick, so manufacturers spin them into processable technical fiber slivers first. Besides, the smooth fiber surface lacks crimp, resulting in weak cohesion and low elongation. Producers usually blend it with cotton, Tencel and other fibers to manufacture premium textiles. Japan stands as the largest consumer market for apocynum venetum textiles worldwide.

4、Bamboo Raw Fibers

Virgin bamboo fiber refers to fiber directly separated from bamboo through mechanical and physical processing. It retains bamboo’s inherent properties and boasts suitable fineness, staple length and tensile strength to meet spinning standards.

Single virgin bamboo fiber measures merely around 2 mm, which is quite short. For this reason, manufacturers have to spin it with technical fiber slivers. Current degumming techniques draw experience from ramie degumming processes, yet removing lignin remains the biggest technical hurdle. The resulting fiber bundles tend to be stiff with high residual lignin content.

Virgin bamboo fiber differs fundamentally from bamboo viscose fiber. As pure natural fiber, virgin bamboo fiber delivers distinctive texture, great wear performance and healthcare benefits. People name it virgin bamboo fiber to tell it apart from bamboo viscose. In contrast, bamboo viscose falls under regenerated cellulose fiber. Its natural antibacterial ingredients degrade during chemical treatment, and the chemical production process also generates pollution. Thus it cannot be categorized as a fully eco-friendly fiber.

Virgin bamboo fiber mainly consists of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, which together make up over 90% of its dry weight. The rest includes protein, fat, pectin, tannin, pigment and ash.

Scanning electron microscope observations reveal clear horizontal nodes along the longitudinal surface of virgin bamboo fiber, alongside uneven thickness and tiny grooves covering the surface. Its cross section takes irregular oval or kidney shapes with a hollow central lumen. Countless pores of varying sizes spread across the cross section with cracks along the edges, sharing similarities with ramie fiber cross sections.

These pores, grooves and cracks act just like tiny capillaries, absorbing and evaporating moisture instantly. This feature earns virgin bamboo fiber the nickname “breathable fiber”. Fabrics and garments made from this fiber absorb moisture efficiently, allow ample air circulation and bring a cool touch to the wearer. Virgin bamboo fiber also delivers strong natural antibacterial and bactericidal effects with lasting eco-friendly healthcare performance. Contained sodium copper chlorophyllin endows the fiber with outstanding deodorization and anti-ultraviolet functions. Tests show virgin bamboo fabric removes 70%–72% of ammonia odor and 93%–95% of sour odor.

Thanks to its premium wear comfort and healthcare value, virgin bamboo fiber works well for functional hygiene and medical textiles as well as bedding products. Yarn spun from this raw material feels soft with subtle structural firmness, balancing smoothness and crispness. Fabrics woven from it carry a fresh, sleek hand feel and avoid sticking to the skin. Its excellent moisture absorption and air permeability make it an ideal fabric for summer and autumn apparel.

Nevertheless, the research and application of bamboo fiber still stay in the early phase. Virgin bamboo fiber has obvious drawbacks including low dye uptake, high lignin and gum content and poor elasticity, all of which limit its wider application. Plenty of fundamental research on virgin bamboo fiber still awaits exploration. Relevant studies can supply theoretical support for its textile development and mass production, helping manufacturers create textiles that fully showcase bamboo’s superior wear performance and unique texture.

Bamboo viscose fiber also has its own flaws: low wet strength, easy brittle fracture and limited fiber specifications and varieties, all restraining downstream product development. Therefore, deeper research into bamboo fiber development and utilization—especially expanded exploitation of virgin bamboo fiber—can lower the textile industry’s reliance on petroleum-based raw materials, cut energy consumption and environmental pollution, and finally realize sustainable development.

5、Mulberry Bark Fibers

People extract mulberry bast fibers from pruned mulberry branches through degumming treatment. Domestic research reports on mulberry bast fiber extraction first emerged in the 1990s. In 1995, Yin Lide, Shen Yi and other researchers filed a patent for mulberry bast fiber preparation technology.

The whole extraction workflow covers outer skin removal, chemical scouring, mechanical separation, rinsing, acid washing, softening, drying and carding. The finished mulberry bast fiber has an average staple length of 31.50 mm and breaking strength of 5.30 cN/dtex. Its overall performance matches or even surpasses cotton fiber, and it carries a silky luster.

Single mulberry bast fiber is quite short, so manufacturers rely on technical fiber slivers for spinning. The bundle fiber has a staple length ranging from 27 mm to 39 mm, linear density between 3.25 tex and 4 tex, breaking strength of 15–29 cN/tex, and breaking elongation at 4%–12%.

Mulberry bast fiber contains less cellulose than sisal, hemp, jute and pineapple leaf fiber, yet its pectin content is far higher than these plant fibers. Producers can draw on hemp fiber processing techniques for its degumming and fiber making. Available degumming methods include chemical degumming, bio-enzyme degumming and combined bio-chemical degumming.

The complete preparation process goes as follows: mulberry bark impurity removal → water soaking → hammer washing → alkaline boiling → water washing → bleaching → acid washing → water washing → drying → oil finishing → spin-drying → secondary drying → pre-opening → fiber opening.