What are natural fibers?

Natural fibers have traditionally been used in all cultures of the world to meet the basic requirements of clothing, storage, building materials, and items of daily use, such as ropes and fishing nets. People in olden times used various kinds of natural fibers depending on their local availability.

The first composite material in history was apparently made with clay and straw in Egypt 3000 years ago to build walls. Hemp was cultivated in China in 2800 BC and is considered one of the oldest natural fibers to be taken into use for making products, along with linen. Hemp in Greek and Latin terminology was cannabis, which led to the word “canvas,” as hemp was used to make sails for boats. Flax or fine linen was used for the burial shrouds of Egyptian pharaohs. Similarly, nettle was used for making fishing nets in olden times.

India is rich in plant resources, and the use of various natural fibers such as banana, pineapple, sisal, hemp, coconut, palm, grasses, etc. was widely prevalent in olden times. Their use became limited once cotton acquired the prime status of plant fibers. Organic cotton accounts for a very small percentage of total cotton production. Silk, linen, and jute are other natural fibers that have continued to enjoy popularity.

Cotton Fibers

The oldest cotton fibers and boll fragments, dated from around 5000 B.C., were discovered in Mexico. In 5 B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus reported of a plant that “bore fleece.” Cotton has been worn in India and Egypt for over 5,000 years. Cotton was grown by Native Americans as early as 1500. In England in the 1700s, it was against the law to import or manufacture fabric made of cotton since it was a threat to the sheep and wool industry.

American colonists were able to grow lots of cotton, but processing was difficult. It was not until the 1700s that the cotton industry flourished in the United States. It was then that Samuel Slater, an Englishman, built the first American cotton mill. These mills converted cotton fibers into yarn and cloth.

In 1793, Eli Whitney developed the cotton gin, which mechanically separates the seed from the lint fiber. Whitney named his machine a “gin,” short for the word “engine.” Technology has improved over the past centuries making cotton growth and production much more efficient

Linen/Flax Fiber

Linen is one of the earliest products known to civilization. When the man was in his earliest primitive state, living on the wild animals he hunted, their skins formed his only clothing. Later, when nomadic communities formed, driving herds of cattle and sheep across the lands of Eastern Europe during those great migrations, the wool from those sheep’s flocks was used to clothe their owners.

After a long period of history, the man settled down, built himself permanent cities, and cultivated the land. One of the products of the soil was flax, and out of the fiber from flax, linen was made. Linen is, therefore, the earliest known vegetable fabric to be woven.

The domestication of fiber flax, not to mention seed flax, occurred in India and China more than 5,000 years ago, before that of cotton. Some scholars believe that flax originally came from western Persia and spread over to other countries regarded as the regions of early flax cultivation—India, China, and Central Asia—and westward and southwestward, primarily to Babylon and Egypt.