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Effects of Growing Temperature on Chemical-Physical Properties of Kenaf Fibers¹

Several cultivars of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) were grown under five different thermal regimes in the Duke University phytotron, simulating a wide latitudinal distribution in the U.S. Kenaf stems were analyzed for carbohydrates by the gas-liquid chromatograph.y trimethylsilyl method. Xylose, the major pentose species found in kenaf stems, was found to increase linearly with increasing environmental temperature over the range studied. Single kenaf bast fibers, from plants grown under the two temperature extremes, were tensile tested. A positive correlation was found between percent xylose of unfractionated stem sections and individual bast fiber axial tensile strength. Bast fibers from the warmest environment were strongest in axial tensile strength when expressed on a per unit area basis. It is suggested from this study that kenaf pulps from southerly locations may exhibit some superiority in strength characteristic over kenaf pulps produced from a crop grown at a northerly location.

Key Words: Bast fiber • Carbohydrates • Cell wall cross sectional area • Gas-liquid chromatography • Axial tensile testing • Trimethylsilyl • Stress-strain • Phytotron

² Graduate Fellow, School of Forestry, Duke University, Durham. N. C. 27706 (Current address, Paper Service Division, Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y. 14650).

Received for publication June 16, 1972.