Variation of chemical and morphological properties of different parts of banana plant (Musa paradisica) and their effects on pulping

Chemical and morphological characterization of different parts of banana plant(Musa paradisica) (peduncle, leaf stalk and pseudo stem) were carried out in orderto assess their potentiality for chemical pulp. Each portion was tested forextractives, sodium hydroxide solubility, ash, lignin, cellulose and pentosancontents as well as their fiber length and width. These segmented parts werecharacterized as low amount of lignin (12.8–16.1%) and moderate amount of α-cellulose (31.6–43.3%) and relatively high amount of ash (7.6–19.1%), alkalisolubility (32.4-51.4%) and water solubility. The morphological properties of thebanana plant, in terms of fiber length and width were found to be a medium fiberwith high slenderness ratio. Kraft process was applied for the three portions ofbanana plant to evaluate pulp properties. At the optimal pulping (Active alkali22% for peduncle, 16% for leaf stalk and pseudo stem at 150 oC for 1 hour) pulpyields about 30.5–40.5% on oven dried (OD) raw material with kappa number from16.9 to 26.1 were obtained when cooking was carried out for 1 hour. Mechanicalproperties of the unbleached pulp showed a high tensile, tear and burst index forpseudo stem.