Ramie fibre is one of the finest and strongest natural fibres. It is obtained from the stems of the ramie plant. Ramie fibres are composed mainly of cellulose and have a high cellulose to hemicellulose ratio that contributes to their strength. However, ramie fibres contain gum substances that bind the fibres together and make them difficult to spin. Degumming is required to remove the gum and produce a textile-grade ramie fibre that has properties like high tensile strength, fineness, and resistance to chemicals and microbes. The document discusses the chemical composition and physical properties of ramie fibres like fineness, tensile strength, and how properties are affected by degum

1. 11
Evaluation of Ramie Fibre Quality: A Review
Pradipta Banerjee1, D. P. Ray1, Pratik Satya2, S. Debnath1, Debashmita Mondal1,
S. C. Saha1 and P. K. Biswas3
1National Institute of Research on Jute and Allied Fibre Technology, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
2Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
3Palli Siksha Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal, India.
ABSTRACT
Ramie (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaud.) is a fibre yielding flowering plant belonging to the Nettle family Uriticaceae (Ray et al.,
2014b). Before using this bast fibre for textile products, it has to be degummed completely or partially. The degummed
ramie fibre is silky, lustrous and whitest of the white. This classic fibre has unique physical and chemical properties that
differentiate ramie from other bast fibres commonly used in textile industries. Single filament of ramie fibre is very fine
and possesses excellent tenacity, luster and microbial resistivity. The fibre absorbs and liberates moisture very fast with
almost negligible shrinkage. It is more resistant to chemical actions than most other major fibres. The ultimate fibre cell
length, breadth, L/B ratio, cell wall thickness, gravimetric fineness of ramie fibre is superior to jute, cotton or flax. Despite
of its unique characteristics, ramie still remains unexplored due to high percentage of gum which binds the fibres together
and makes it difficult to spin yarn (Ray et al., 2014d).
Keywords: Ramie, degumming, bast fibre, tenacity, fineness
Ramie produces one of the finest, ancient and textile
grade vegetable fibres known to the world, grown mainly
in tropical and temperate regions (Ray, et al., 2014). It
possesses highest strength, good durability, excellent lustre
and microbe resistance property. Ramie or Boehmeria nivea
(L.) Gaud., is a perennial shrub belonging to the nettle
family Uritcaceae. This cellulosic fibre has an immense
economical importance in manufacturing of various goods,
such as, shirting and suiting materials, table clothes, bed
sheets, curtains. The fibre is collected from the phloem
surrounding the stem of this dicotyledonous plant. These
bast fibres provide mechanical strength to the stem. The
cross-sectional area of the stem of ramie plant consists of
pith, xylem, cambium, phloem or bast, cortex and epidermis
(inside to outside). The fibres are obtained from phloem,
located in the inner bark, outside the cambium (Pandey,
2007). Like all vegetable fibres, ramie fibres are also
made up of sclerenchymatous tissue and have high length-
to-diameter ratio. The wall of ramie fibre is composite in
Address for correspondence
D. P. Ray, National Institute of Research on Jute and Allied Fibre Technology, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Email: drdebprasadray@gmail.com
Submission: 07 January, 2015 Revison : 21 February, 2015 Acceptance: 28 March, 2015
Access this article online
Publisher
Website:
http://www.renupublishers.com

2. 66 International Journal of Bioresource Science Vol 2 l Issue 1 l April 2015
Banerjee et al. : Evaluation of Ramie Fibre Quality: A Review
nature and thus provides toughness to individual fibre. The
ramie fibres have very high tensile strength and are used
in high quality textiles. But the main problem of using ramie
is that the fibres are glued together by gummy substances.
These gummy materials, which are mainly sugars, hold the
fibres in bundles.
Biochemical composition of ramie fibre
The major constituents of ramie fibre are alpha-cellulose,
hemicellulose and pectin bonded with Ca+2 ions. The
minor constituents are inorganic matters, nitrogenous
matters, fat and wax, traces of pigments and lignin.
Pectin, hemicelluloses, lignin form the soft matrix on which
the rigid cellulose microfibrils are embedded (Gravitis,
2006). Pectin represents a polymer of D-galacturonic
acid and other monosaccharides, while hemicellulose is
a short, highly branched polymer of several five and six
carbon monosaccharide units. Lignin, present in negligible
amount in ramie fibre, is a complex insoluble polymer of
phenolic residues, associated with cellulose and acts as a
strengthening material. The cellulose microfibrils are long
bundles of extensive hydrogen bonded linear polymers
of glucose linked by β-glycosidic linkages (Lodish et al.,
2003). According to Hazra and Karmakar (2008) the
cellulose: hemicelluloses (C:H) ratio of ramie is the highest
(23.6 : 1), followed by sunhemp (21.7 : 1), flax (18.2: 1).
All other fibres have C:H ratio in the range of 3.60 and
4.10. A high C:H ratio may favour high degree of cellulose
crystallinity and may be for this reason ramie produces
the strongest but stiffest bast fibre (Sarkar et al., 2010).
Because of its stiffness and brittleness with low elasticity
and resilience, blends of ramie are more common than
pure ramie (Singh, 1996; Anonymous, 2009). The degree
of crystallinity of ramie fibre was determined by X-ray
crystallography methods. Batra (2007) reported that the
degree of crystallinity of ramie is generally 70%, with
74% and 54% crystallinity in dry and moist condition
respectively.
The stem of the ramie plant is soaked in water and the fibres
are extracted by motor driven machine. The decorticated
fibres are subjected to degumming by chemical, microbial
or chemi-microbial method. Degummed ramie fibre mainly
consists of 19-30% gum, along with lignin, pectin, fat and
wax etc. Thakur et al., (1999) reported that R-1411 variety
of decorticated ramie contained 22.93% gum, 1.72%
pectin, 87.29% holocellulose, 73.76% cellulose and 95%
alpha-cellulose. Chakravarty et al., (1972) and Dasgupta
et al., (1979) stated that decorticated ramie fibre was
composed of 19–30% gummy materials, apart from 1.5%
ash, 0.32% fat and wax, 4.03% pentosans, 0.54 % lignin
and 86.50% cellulose. Petruszka (1977) reported 72-
79% cellulose, 0-1% lignin, 25–35% water insoluble gums
in decorticated fibre. From these reports it is evident that
hemicellulose content of ramie fibre is the highest among
the non-cellulosic components. Chemical compositions of
different ramie varieties grown in China showed little
variation the amount of lipids, water-soluble components,
pectin and lignin, but there was almost no change in
hemicelluloses, cellulose and ash contents of fibre (Minchun,
1989). Gas Liquid Chromatography analysis of ramie gum
components showed that it is composed of mainly 49.90%
galactose, 1.20% mannose, 9.70 % arabinose, 38%
rhamnose and traces of xylose (Pandey, 2007). It is found
that gum polysaccharide of ramie in combination with urea
formaldehyde has a good adhesive property for making
particle board.
Ramie leaf contains some useful minerals like Ca, K,
Mg, unsaturated fatty acids like linoleic acid (30%) and
linolenic acid (33%), 9.79 mg/ 100 g a-tocopherol and
antioxidant compounds like polyphenol and flavonoids
(Lee et al., 2009).
Physical properties of ramie fibre
Now coming to the physical parameters, ramie has the
highest area of cross-section among all the bast fibres,
about 5.639 X 103 µm2 (CIRCOT, Mumbai, 1999). Ramie
fibre comes first in terms of durability, tensile strength,
length of fibre cells, fineness and colour, among all other
long vegetable textile fibres (Biswas and Basu, 1994). As
reported by Satya et al., (2010), the ultimate fibre cell
length of ramie is 20 - 25 mm, ultimate fibre cell breadth
is 15 – 80 µm, L/B ratio is 3500:1, cell wall thickness is 9
– 16 µm, gravimetric fineness is 0.40 – 0.80 tex and fibre
filament tenacity is 40 – 65 g tex-1, which is far better
from cotton, jute and flax. The higher L/B ratio indicates
the quality of fibre and in this respect ramie is better than
cotton (1000-3000:1) (Kim and Triplett, 2001). The fibre
strands of ramie measure up to 90 cm in length, with the
longest individual cell of 40 cm long, which is about 7-13
times longer than cotton seed trichomes (Anonymous, 2009;

3. Banerjee et al. : Evaluation of Ramie Fibre Quality: A Review
International Journal of Bioresource Science Vol 2 l Issue 1 l April 2015 67
Fahn, 1990). The luster and whiteness of bleached ramie
fibre is comparable to silk.
Tenacity and fineness of decorticated ramie fibre improved
gradually by degumming the fibre with strong alkali
(Pandey, 1998). Fan et al., (2010) compared the tensile
properties of ramie degummed in sodium hydroxide
and sodium bicarbonate. He showed that due to the
differences in strength of the two alkali solutions, the stress
of fibre degummed in sodium carbonate was greater than
corresponding tensile properties of ramie degummed
in sodium hydroxide. Since sodium hydroxide damaged
the fibres to a greater extent than sodium carbonate,
the ramie degummed with sodium hydroxide had poorer
tensile strength. The gum residues obtained from the
two treatments was almost the same in both the cases. A
comparative study of filament tenacity and bundle tenacity
of flax, jute, roselle, kenaf, sunhemp, ramie, sisal and cotton
is shown in Table 1 (Singh).
Table 1. Filament and bundle tenacity of major textile fibres
Fibre
Tenacity (g/den)
Filament Bundle
Flax 45-55 30-36
Jute 30-45 13-30
Roselle 25-40 20-30
Kenaf 30-45 16-30
Sunnhemp 12-35 15-35
Ramie 40-65 18-40
Sisal 40-45 22-36
Cotton 20-45 -
The fineness of individual fibre of ramie comes next to
cotton and followed by jute, mesta, flax, sunhemp, siasal
(Hazra and Karmakar, 2008; Anonymous, 1990). The
fineness data are showed in Table 2.
Breaking load and tensile strength of degummed ramie
fibre is dependent on different stages of crop growth.
It was observed that after degumming, matured ramie
(70 days old) showed higher tensile strength than over-
matured ramie (90 days old) (Kundu et al., 1996). Roy et
al., (1998) reported the variation in physical properties of
fungal degummed and bleached ramie fibre with different
concentrations of bleaching solution for varying period of
time. According to their finding, for the same degumming
Table 2: Fineness of major textile fibres
Fibre Fineness (tex)
Cotton 0.20
Ramie 0.80
Jute 4.50
Mesta 5.50
Flax 6.00
Sunhemp 17.00
Sisal 35.00
treatment average breaking load and tensile strength
decreased with the increase in either the bleaching period
or the concentration of bleaching solution. The fineness of
the fibre, on other hand, was unaffected by the period
of bleaching as well as the concentration of bleaching
solution. Thakur et al., (1999) studied the breaking load
and tenacity of different varieties of raw and degummed
ramie fibres and showed that tenacity of raw decorticated
ramie fibre was higher than that of alkali treated fibres.
Loss in tenacity of fibre is attributed to the removal of gum
in the cell. Moreover, on removal of gummy substances from
fibre, it takes a more crystalline form (CIRCOT, Mumbai,
1999).
Table 3: Filament characteristics of ramie and jute
Filament characteristics Ramie
Jute (C.
capsularis)
Jute (C.
olitorius)
Gravimetric fineness (tex) 0.40 – 0.80 1.25 – 4.00 2 – 5
Tenacity (g/tex) 40 - 65 30 – 45 35 – 50
Extension at break (%) 3 – 4 1 – 1.80 1 – 2
Torsional rigidity (10-9N/
M2)
1 – 2 0.25 – 1.25 0.25 – 1.30
Flexural rigidity (10-9N M2) 0.80 – 1.20 3 – 5.50 3.50 - 6
A data showed that the tensile strength of yarns made up
of ramie fibres after forty washings with 5% soap and 5%
soda reduced by only 7% while the tensile strength of yarn
made up of cotton reduced by 18%, spun rayon reduced
by 19%, flax (linen) reduced by 63% and ramie – spun
rayon blend (1:1) reduced by 16% (Singh, 1996). Wet
strength of ramie is greater than cotton.
Ramie fabrics have an excellent property of transmitting
heat, moisture absorbance, resisting mildew and resisting
moth (Pandey, 2007). The ramie is also known to have anti
microbial property. The true fibre density value of ramie

4. 68 International Journal of Bioresource Science Vol 2 l Issue 1 l April 2015
Banerjee et al. : Evaluation of Ramie Fibre Quality: A Review
is the highest among all the lingo-cellulosic fibres (CIRCOT,
Mumbai, 1999). All these physical properties of ramie
have contributed to its immense popularity in recent times.
Quality evaluation of ramie fibre
Length: The length of the fibre is measured from bottom
end point to top end point of a bundle of reeds. It is
measured with a scale and generally measures from 60
– 120 cm or more. Length mainly depends on harvesting
time of the plant.
Degumming: Decorticated ramie fibre contains 19 to 30
% gummy substances which have to be reduced to 5-6 %
to prepare spin able yarn (Banerjee et al., 2014). Removal
of gum, mainly hemicelluloses, pectin, lignin and wax is
necessary to yield textile grade ramie fibre (Ray et al.,
2014a). The fineness and tenacity vary with the residual
gum content of the fibre. The total and residual gum content
is measured chemically by Das Gupta et al., 1976 method.
Degumming could be brought about by both chemical
and microbial method. Proper degumming uplifts the fibre
quality in terms of fineness, tenacity, colour and durability.
Gravimetric fineness: The measurement of diameter of
single fibre is called fineness. It is expressed by linear
density or mass per unit length (g/km or tex). Gravimetric
fineness is measured by weighing 100 fibres of 1 cm length
and expressing in linear density value (Bhaduri et al.,
2009). Finer fibre indicates better quality. Generally the
fineness of ramie fibres vary between 0.40 – 0.80 tex.
Bundle strength: The bundle strength of the fibre measured
by Instron Tensile Tester or NIRJAFT Bundle Strength Tester
(Bhaduri et al., 2009). In the Bundle Tester instrument, a
bundle of 12.5 cm long fibres of mass 200 to 400 mg is
taken from the middle region of the whole fibre and tested
for tenacity. The bundle strength is expressed as g/tex. The
average of 10 measurements was taken for appropriate
result. Generally the bundle strength of ramie fibre varies
between 28 – 40 g/tex, which is much more superior than
C. casularis (13- 30 g/tex) and C. olitorius (16 – 35 g/tex)
(Nag and Saha, 2009).
Tensile testing of single filament: Single filaments were
separated manually and tensile test was performed using
Instron tensile tester. The filaments were pasted on to a
paper window of 20 mm gauge length and an extension
rate of 20 mm/min was used. A load of 2.5 Newton was
applied. A comparison between ramie and jute in terms of
physical properties of single filament is given in Table 3
(Nag and Saha, 2009).
The overall fibre quality parameters of ramie in comparison
to other major fibre crops are described in Table 4 (Satya
et al., 2010).
Table 4. comparison of fibre quality of ramie with other
major textile fibres
Ramie Cotton Jute Flax
Fibre Physical Characteristics
Ultimate fibre
length (mm)
20 – 25 16 – 52 0.80 – 6.00
26 –
65
Ultimate fibre cell
breadth (µm)
15 – 80 15 – 20 5 – 25
10 –
35
L/B ratio 3500 2500 110 1700
Cell wall thickness
(µm)
9 – 16 - 3 – 9 8 – 17
Fibre filament
tenacity (g tex-1)
40 - 65 30 - 35 30 - 45 45 - 55
Chemical composition (%)
α- cellulose 86.90 88 – 96 61 80
β- cellulose 5.00 - - -
Hemicellulose 3.90 - 15.90 4.40
Lignin 0.50 - 13.50 5.50
Conclusion
Now-a-days ramie has been blended with several natural
and man-made fibres for the production of high quality
textile products. Durability, thermal properties and
structural parameters of fibre using XRD, SEM, DTA, TGA,
and DSC helped to develop products with new properties.
Modern technologies used in dyeing and finishing will
help to produce high-quality products with the necessary
comfort properties. In recent years a great deal of research
work has been carried out in India regarding the quality
improvement of ramie fibres. After cotton and jute, ramie
has a huge potential to emerge as a major fibre yielding
crop all over the world.
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