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Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile ResearchVol. 36, June 2011, pp.172-177

Utilization of pineapple leaf agro-waste for extraction of fibre and the residual

biomass for vermicomposting

Shyamal Banika, Debasis Nag & Sanjoy Debnath

National Institute of Research on Jute & Allied Fibre Technology, 12 Regent Park, Kolkata 700 040, India

Received 28 April 2010; revised received and accepted 16 July 2010

A special type of machine with metal knife scrapper roller and serrated roller has been developed and used to scrap outthe waxy layer and at the same time macerating and breaking the leaf surface for ease of retting to extract the pineapple leaffibres. Pineapple leaf contains 2.5-3.5% strong, white and silky textile grade fibre embedded by a top waxy layer within theleaf. After removing the top waxy layer, fibre has been extracted from the pineapple leaf by retting in water. The residual

green sludge has been used for vermicomposting after appropriate treatment using earthworm species African night crawler(Eudrilus eugeniae) as inoculums. The vermicomposting process was complete within 45 days. This vermicompost frompineapple leaf agro-waste is found to be rich in plant nutrients. The combined technology package for the extraction of fibrefrom pineapple leaf and utilization of the residual biomass debris from the pineapple leaf scratching machine for

vermicomposting is economically viable and remunerative for the pineapple cultivators.

Keywords:Agro-waste, -cellulose, Hydrophobic waxy layer, Pineapple leaf fibre, Pineapple leaf scratching machine, Retting,

Vermicomposting

1 IntroductionPineapple leaf fibre is a high textile grade

commercial fibre, generally extracted by water

retting. Pineapple leaf contains only 2.5-3.5% fibre,

covered by a hydrophobic waxy layer, which remainsbeneath the waxy layer1. Pineapple leaf fibre is graded

in between jute and cotton or jute and ramie. It has all

textile properties and is capable of blending with jute,

cotton, ramie and some other synthetic fibres2-4

. So

pineapple leaf fibre can capture an important position

among natural fibres as potential commercial gradetextile fibre, but there is need of its assured supply to

processing industry in sufficient quantities.

Pineapple is cultivated in India, approximately in

87.2 thousand hectare of land and 600 thousand tons

of pineapple leaf fibre can be extracted from this

agro-waste leaves after harvest of the fruit

5

. Althoughpineapple leaf fibre is silky, fine and textile grade, the

fibre content is only 2.5-3.5% of total leaf biomass.

Thus, the fibre extraction alone from pineapple leaf is

not economically viable and hence does not create

much interest to farmers. Pineapple leaves are noteven suitable for cattle feed and after harvest of fruit

the disposal of the leaves becomes a big problem.

During extraction of fibre, significant amount of

succulent green biomass debris is left after scrapping

out the waxy surface layer from pineapple leaf. This

residual sludge can be utilized successfully for

vermicomposting to make the total integrated systemeconomically viable.

Vermicomposting is a simple biotechnological

process of composting using certain efficient species

of earthworms. This is a mesophilic process, mediated

by special types of earthworms and microorganisms.

The process is faster than common composting,because in this case the substrate materials pass

through the earthworm gut where transformation

takes place. The resulting earthworm manure is rich in

microbial activity and plant growth regulators and

fortified with pest repellence attributes as well6.

Earthworms can consume the organic mass of thepineapple leaf residue to convert them into the

vermicompost. Each worm weighing about 0.5-0.6g

eats waste organic matter equivalent to its body

weight and produces compost cast equivalent to about

50% of the biomass it consumes per day.

This study is an endeavour for the extraction of

fibre from pineapple leaf agro-waste, determination of

environmental factors related to retting of pineapple

leaf for finding out most favourable conditions of

retting, and utilization of the residual biomass debris

___________

aTo whom all the correspondence should be addressed.E-mail: [email protected]


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INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., JUNE 2011174

Semi-dried pineapple leaf debris were mixed withcattle dung @ 100 kg per ton of pineapple leaf waste

and used for preliminary bed preparation. This

organic residue was allowed to decompose for onemonth, covering surface with dry grass and leaves for

mulching before inoculation of mature earthwormspecies. African night crawler (Eudrilus eugeniae) @

100 in number per square meter area on the bed was

inoculated and then covered with fresh pineapple

scratched leaf residue. The process was allowed to

continue for another 45 days. Water was regularlysprayed on the composting beds to keep the

earthworm alive and in action. Watering was stopped

3-4 days before harvesting, i.e. when the biomass

lump becomes brittle and brown in colour for surface

drying and moving the earthworm to penetrate inside.

Dry compost was collected from the surface, grinded

and sieved before packing as ready vermicompost.

2.7 Multiplication of Earthworm

Earthworm multiplies on decaying leaves and cattle

dung in 1:1 ratio in cement tank with proper drainage

facility. The nucleus culture of earthworm was

introduced into the organic waste mixture at the rateof 50 numbers per kilogram of the substrate. They

were properly mulched with dry grass and wet gunny

bags and kept under shade. Proper moisture level was

maintained by sprinkling water from time to time.

Within one month the earthworms multiplied300 times, which was used as inoculum for

vermicomposting.

2.8 Precautions Taken for Vermicomposting

Following precautions were taken for

vermicomposting:

(i) The composting area was shaded to protectearthworm from direct sunlight.

(ii)

Adequate moisture level was maintained by

sprinkling water as and when required.

(iii) The tanks were covered with iron nets to

prevent earthworms from birds and rodents andfrom ants.

2.9 Chemical and Microbial Analysis of Vermicompost

Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from

the vermicompost samples were determined by

methods described in Jackson10. Population of total

viable bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes was

determined from the vermicompost following serial

dilution technique using modified Bunt and Rovira soil

extract agar for bacteria, Martins Rose Bengal

streptomycin agar for fungi and Jensens actinomycetes

agar for actinomycetes. Average number of coloniesfrom duplicate plates were observed.

3 Results and Discussion

Table 1 shows that pineapple leaf fibre containsmore -cellulose and less lignin than jute. Degree of

polymerization and crystallinity of -cellulose ofpineapple leaf fibre is almost at par with jute but it is

much inferior to ramie and cotton. From chemical

composition also it appears that pineapple leaf fibre is

a better textile fibre than jute and also a better

substrate for pulp and paper4,11,12

.From Table 2 it is evident that pineapple leaf fibre

(PALF) is finer than average grade jute. It has no meshy

structure like jute and contains well separated filaments.

The fibre is two times more extensible than jute, with

similar fibre bundle strength and L/B ratio. Flexuralrigidity and torsional rigidity of pineapple leaf fibre are

comparable to jute2. In consideration of textile properties

it is placed in between jute and cotton or jute and ramie.

Table 1Comparative chemical composition of pineapple leaf

fibre in per cent

Constituent Pineappleleaf fibre

Capsularisjute

Ramie Cotton

-Cellulose 69.5 61.0 86.9 94.0

Pentosans 17.8 15.9 3.9 0

Lignin 4.4 13.2 0.5 0Fat and wax 3.3 0.9 0.3 0.6

Pectin 1.1 0 0 0.9Nitrogenous

matter

0.25 1.56 2.1 1.2a

Ash 0.9 0.5 1.1 1.2DP of

-cellulose

1178 1150 5800 2020

Crystalinity of

-cellulose

57.5 55.0 70.0 68.0

DP Degree of polymerization, aAs protein.

Table 2Comparative physical properties (mean values) of

pineapple leaf fibre

Parameter Pineappleleaf fibre

Jute Ramie

Capsularis OlitoriusTenacity,

g/tex

26.1 25.0 23.9 45.0

Fineness, tex 2.8 2.2 2.5 0.7

Flexural

rigidity

dynes cm2

3.8 4.5 4.6 1.0

Torsional

rigidity 1010

dynes/cm2

0.86 0.85 0.80 1.5

Extension- at-break, %

L/B ratio of

ultimate cell

3.0

450

1.5

110

1.5

110

3.5

3500


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BANIK et al.: UTILIZATION OF PINEAPPLE LEAF AGRO-WASTE 175

Moreover it can be blended with jute, cotton, ramie andsome synthetic fibres, viz. acrylic, viscose and

polypropylene for improvement in fabric quality3,13-15.

Considering all these physical and chemical properties,pineapple leaf fibre seems to have a very good prospect

as textile grade fibre16

and can fetch good market valueif supply of fibre can be assured to processing industry

as per their demand. Hence, there is a need to develop a

technology for extraction of pineapple leaf fibre, which

is profitable and easy to use by the pineapple growers.

Environmental parameters related to retting ofpineapple leaf have been studied to bring out best-suited

technology for fibre extraction and the results have been

presented in Table 3. Environmental parameters, viz.

temperature,pH and conductivity of retting water during

the progress of retting of pineapple leaf were evaluated.

Retting was conducted in 1:20 substrate-liquor ratio

using urea as accelerator. Inoculation with pectinolytic

bacteria has been suggested for improved retting of jute

and kenaf11

. Retting of pineapple leaf needs to be

evaluated by inoculation with potential pectinolytic

anaerobic bacteria since most part of the retting of

pineapple leaf happens to continue in anaerobic

condition. The average temperature of water during this

experiment in summer was around 36C. The retting

was completed in 5-6 days. The initial pH from near

neutrality drops to acidic range due to release of organic

acids in retting liquor; particularly galacturonic acid has

been found during retting of jute8. The pH of water

gradually increases as the retting progressed to

completion, which is similar to retting of jute. The

conductivity of retting water gradually increases and

reaches to a maximum value at the end of retting. Thismight be due to the release of inorganic and organic ions

in retting liquor.

Results of another experiment conducted during

autumn when the temperature reaches below 30C(post monsoon and pre winter) are shown in Table 4.

About 13-14 days are required for completion of theretting; still the separation of fibre is not found to be

satisfactory. In this case also pH of water sharply

drops to acidic range with starting of retting and at theend of retting pH starts increasing slowly. Similarly,

the release of organic acid due to the decomposition

of large carbohydrate molecules is responsible for

drop in pH8. The redox potential of water gradually

decreases and reaches to a very low level, where

methanogenic bacteria remains active and

biomethanation may take place. This indicates that

like retting of jute, kenaf or flax, the retting of

pineapple leaf predominantly takes place in thereduced environment and is mediated by anaerobic

microflora. Conductivity in retting tank water gradually

Table 4Environmental parameters during extraction of pineapple leaf fibre in retting tank during autumn

Pre-retting operation Days of retting Temperature,C pH Eh, mV Conductivity, ms

Scrapping of leaf 02

4681013

14

30.029.7

30.129.827.125.030.4

29.6

7.694.35

4.284.584.884.834.80

4.84

+186.0-33.3

-96.9-190.1-187.0-298.1-239.1

-252.6

0.0011252.33

2.833.173.313.143.28

3.92

Scrapping and combing of leaf 02

46810

13

30.029.7

30.330.127.025.0

30.1

7.693.78

3.894.015.174.98

5.04

+186.0-7.2

-77.9-143.4-200.0-291.3

-250.4

0.0011253.15

3.353.523.503.49

3.57

Table 3Environmental parameters during extraction of

pineapple leaf fibre and retting time in laboratory conditionsduring summer

Retting water parameterSample Day ofretting Temperature

C

pH Conductivity

m.mho/cm

Set I 1 36 6.20 1.3223

5

6

3636

36

36

5.174.99

5.30

5.33

1.651.75

1.75

1.81

Set II 1345

67

36363636

3736

7.125.185.075.09

4.975.02

1.231.741.831.97

2.422.47


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INDIAN J. FIBRE TEXT. RES., JUNE 2011176

increases and reaches to maximum at the end of retting.This is quite obvious because both organic and inorganic

ions are released and added to retting water. The

experiment was conducted at a substrate : liquor ratio1:20 with added accelerator diammonium phosphate

(DAP) @ 0.5%. Hence, from changes of environmentalparameters in retting water it is clearly understood that

retting of pineapple leaf is favoured at around 35C. The

pH of retting liquor becomes acidic due to the

production of organic acids and Eh reaches to low

reduced zone due to the consumption of dissolved

oxygen in water by aerobic microflora. Hence, acid

enduric or acidphilic anaerobic microflora might have

played significant role in retting of pineapple leaf fibre

under this experimental condition. Since aerobic

microflora has been found in retting water at initialstage, they might be responsible for the consumption of

soluble organic matter and oxygen, acting as primary

retting agent and at the same time converting the retting

water suitable for the growth of secondary anaerobic

microflora, and finally the anaerobes complete the

retting process.

Pineapple leaf contains 2.5-3.5% fibre dependingon the variety. Since harsh decortication process

damages pineapple leaf fibre, the new proposed

machine has been modified for the mild operation.

Selection of leaf is also important for successful fibre

extraction. In Philippines, pineapple leaf fibre wasextracted by expert labourers manually who used to

scrap the leaf with a piece of broken porcelain utensil

with care and extract the fibre manually. Later on, this

method has been proved only for academic interest

without any practical reality. The fibre wasrecognized as Pina fibre. This method of pineapple

leaf fibre extraction could not meet the commercial

demand5.

In the present study, different methods (Table 5)

have been evaluated for the extraction of fibre from

pineapple leaf, viz. manual combing, scrapping the

leaf on one side or both the sides with a decorticatormachine, and scrapping and combing one side of the

leaf by a decorticator machine. In new machine, the

steps involve scrapping the leaves to remove waxy

layer and at the same time the leaves pass through

serrated roller for maceration and to break the leaf

surface for entry of retting microorganisms. The

processed pineapple leaves were then retted in

1:20 substrate: liquor ratio with nutrient supplements,

such as 0.5% urea or 0.5% di-ammonium phosphate

(DAP). After completion of retting, the fibres were

extracted, air-dried, and strength and fineness of the

extracted fibres were determined for comparison.

Table 5 shows that manual combing or scrappingfollowed by retting in water takes maximum time for

retting and eventually the fibre strength reduces while

fineness of fibre is adversely affected. Scrapping the

pineapple leaf either one side or both the sides has no

significant difference in retting time, fibre strength and

fineness. Removal of waxy layer from the pineapple

leaf makes an easy entry for retting microbes and thus

helps in quicker retting1. Passing the leaf through the

decorticator machine (Fig.1) for scrapping and then

combing could reduce the retting period but could not

improve the strength or fineness of the fibre, thus

indicating incomplete retting. But on passing thepineapple leaf through newly developed machine9

(Fig. 2) first the scrapping roller removes waxy layer

and then serrated roller helps in rupturing the surface of

the leaf for easy entry of retting microorganisms in the

leaf, which is found to be most effective. Time taken

for retting in these two old and new systems is found to

be the same but the fibre quality in terms of strength

and fineness is better in the new machine. Therefore,

the new system is recommended for the extraction of

pineapple leaf fibre successfully. Good quality fibre

has been extracted by retting in water from those

processed leaves in retting tank using 0.5% urea.Average moisture content in vermicompost cast was

50% and the pH was 7.0. It is observed that the

vermicompost contains more nitrogen, phosphorus and

potassium almost at per and less C:N ratio than othercompost although it is likely to vary with pineapple leaf

biomass residue used for vermicomposting. Pineapple

leaf residue vermicompost contains 1.0-1.2% nitrogen,

0.3-0.4% phosphorus and 0.4-0.5% potassium which

indicates that pineapple leaf debris vermicompost is richenough in NPK and will be suitable for agriculture.

Table 5Comparative strength and fineness of pineapple leaf

fibre by different systems

Pre-retting procedure Retting period

days

Tenacity

g/tex

Fineness

tex

Manual combing 10 7.8 VariableMachine scrapping(one side)

8 11.1 4.3

Machine scrapping(both side)

8 11.6 5.0

Machine scrapping +combing (one side)

6 9.7 5.7

Machine scrapping +maceration (one side)

6 16.7 3.4


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BANIK et al.: UTILIZATION OF PINEAPPLE LEAF AGRO-WASTE 177

Earthworms are invertribates and are of two types

(i) burrowing type and (ii) non-burrowing type. The

non-burrowing types live in upper layer of soil

surface and consume 10% soil organic matter and

90% added organic matter, whereas the burrowingtype live deep in soil and depend 90% on soil organic

matter and 10% on added organic matter. The non-

burrowing type has been used for vermicomposting

from pineapple leaf scratching debris.Generally, microbial population initially increases

in compost beds when organic matter is actively

decomposing and then gradually decreases in number

and reaches to an equilibrium when easily

decomposable organic materials are exhausted

(Table 6). It is also important that the microorganisms

face competition for organic matter from earthworms

in vermicompost beds. Moreover, earthworm

inevitably consumes soil microbes during ingestion of

the organic substrate and extracts nitrogen from

microbes especially from fungi17

. This may be the

reason for less number of fungi in vermicompostsamples18. Bacteria might have multiplied fast again

in vermicompost so long the sufficient moisture is

there. pH and temperature show a profound role in

controlling microbial population in vermicomposting.

From the experimental results, it is evident that 0.68

tons of vermicompost is formed from 1.5 tons of

pineapple leaf scratching residues. This is obtained

from 8 tons of fresh harvested agro-waste leaves after

harvest of pineapple fruit from 1 hectare of land under

pineapple cultivation. The present Indian market price

of the vermicompost is approximately INR 6/- per kg.

and pineapple leaf fibre is INR 25/- per kg. Assumingaverage availability of 8 tons of pineapple leaf from

one hectare of land, the fibre yield @ 2.5% is found to

be 200 kg under simply pineapple cultivation. Thus,

the extra income from pineapple leaf fibre is INR

5000/- and from vermicompost is INR 4080/-, i.e. INR

9080/- from one hectare of land from the integrated

system of waste management. The payback period for

the pineapple leaf-scratching machine has been

calculated 4.5 years with 39.57% break-even point.

4 ConclusionThe newly developed machine can effectively be

used to extract the fibre from the agro-waste of

pineapple leaves and the residual sludge obtained afterscratching the leaves can be used for vermicomposting

successfully. This integrated technology for theextraction of pineapple leaf fibre and the

vermicomposting altogether becomes remunerative to

the pineapple cultivators. The payback period for the

machine is 4.5 years with 39.57% break-even point.

The combined technology can be adopted by allpineapple growers for additional income.

AcknowledgementThe authors are thankful to the Director, Food

Processing Industries & Horticulture, Govt. of West

Bengal, for providing facilities to conduct field trials.

References1 Paul D, Bhattacharyya S K, Banik S, Basu M K &

Mukherjee A B,Appropriate Technol, 24 (4) (1998) 27.2 Ghosh S K & Sinha M K,Indian Text J, 88 (2) (1977) 111.3 Ghosh S K & Dey S K,J Text Assoc, 49 (5) (1988) 167.4 Sinha M K,Agricult Wastes, 4 (6) (1982) 461.

5 Doraiswami I & Chellamani P, Pineapple leaf fibres. TextProg, 24 (1) (1993) 1-37.

6 Nagavallemma K P, Wani S P, Lacroix S, Padmaja V V,Vineela C, Babu Rao M & Sahrawat K L, Vermicomposting :

Recycling waste into valuable organic fertilizer. Global

theme on Agroecosystems, Report No. 8 (ICRISAT, India),2004, 20.

7

TAPPI Standard and Suggested Methods, (Technical

Association of Pulp & Paper Industry, New York), 1991.8

Banik S, Basak M K, Paul D, Nayak P, Sardar D, Sil S C,Sanpui B C & Ghosh A, Indian Crops and Products, 17(2003) 183.

9

Nag Debasis & Debnath Sanjoy, A pineapple leaf fibredecorticator assembly, Indian Patent Application No.2334/DEL/2007, 07 November 2007.

10

Jackson M L, Soil Chemical Analysis (Prentice Hall of

India), 1991, 498.11

Banik S, Basak M K & Sil S C, J Natural Fibres, 4 (2)

(2007) 33.12 Pandey S N & Anantha Krishnan S R, in: Fifty Years of

Research 1939-1989 (Jute Technological ResearchLaboratories. ( ICAR ), Calcutta), 1990, 96.13 Ghosh S K, Sinha M K, Dey S K & Bhaduri S K, Text

Trends, 24 (10) (1982) 49.

14 Ghosh S K, Dey S K & Bhadur S K, Text Trends, 25 (4)(1982) 49.

15 Sinha M K & Ghosh S K,Indian Text J, 88 (3) (1977) 105.16 Bhaduri S K, Sen S K & Dasgupta P C, Indian Pulp Paper,

34 (2) (1979) 15.

17 Ranganathan L S & Parthasarathi K, Curr Sci, 79 (2000)1158.

18 Ranganathan L S & Vinotha S P, Curr Sci, 74 (1998) 634.

Table 6Microbial population in vermicomposting samples

Sample Viablebacteria/g

Viablefungi/g

Viableactinomycetes/g

Partiallydecomposed

substrate

69 106 11 104 2 104

Vermicompost 54 106 8 104 1 104

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