ASSAM AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF COMMUNITY SCIENCE

Synopsis of Thesis/Dissertation of Post-Graduate Student
M.Sc. (Community Science)
Name of the Student : Trideep Bor Saikia

Regd. No. : 18-HMJ-16

Programme of the study : M.Sc. (Community Science)

Major Discipline : Textiles and Apparel Designing

Minor Discipline : Sericulture

Supporting Discipline : Agricultural Statistics

Major Advisor : Dr. Ava Rani Phukan

I. TITLE OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM:

“EXTRACTION OF FIBER FROM Ricinus communis AND EVALUATION OF ITS
PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES.”
II. INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE OF INVESTIGATON:
Fibers are incredibly important to textile production. Textile fibers are those which have
properties that allow them to be spun into yarn or directly made into fabric. History of fibres is as old
as human civilization. Traces of natural fibres have been located to ancient civilizations all over the
globe. For many thousand years, the usage of fibre was limited by natural fibres such as flax, cotton,
silk, wool and plant fibres for different applications. Natural fibers may be obtained from plant,
animal and mineral sources. There are number of species of plants giving fiber to be used by human
beings which are currently not being utilized and has the potentiality to become useful but were
never tried seriously. These underutilized fibers can be obtained from different waste parts of certain
plants. The fibers obtained from stem is called bast fiber and Ricinus communis L is one of the
underutilized plant which has the potential to be used for textile fibers.
 Ricinus communis, the castor bean or castor oil plant is a species of perennial flowering
plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. Castor is indigenous to the South-eastern Mediterranean
Basin, Eastern Africa, and India, but is widespread throughout tropical regions. Composition Plant
stem is lignocellulosic in nature and contain cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin as the major
components. Castor plant also has similar composition to other lignocellulosic materials with45%
cellulose, 30% hemicellulose and 12% ash. The bark of Ricinus communis is reported to produce
fibers with high tensile properties similar to cotton, (Egala and Setti, 2017; Vinayaka et al., 2017).

OBJECTIVES:
The proposed research work will be undertaken with the following objectives:
1. Optimization of the extraction of fiber from Ricinus communis plant.
2. To observe the physio-chemical properties of the extracted fiber.
3. Preparation of value added products.
III. A BRIEF RESUME OF WORK DONE IN INDIA AND ABROAD

Work done in India

The tensile strength of (323 MPa for 300 µm (0.3mm) diameter ) single castor oil plant
cortex fiber are reported to be comparatively very high as with the tensile strength (100 MPa for 300
µm (0.3mm) diameter ) of the single castor oil plant xylem fiber. The preliminary studies of the fiber
revealed that the fiber can be used as reinforcement for natural fiber composites, (Egala and Setti,
2017).
The tensile strength of castor oil cortex fiber is more than those of hemp and coir and
waste broom grass fibers, (Egala and Setti, 2017).
The bark of Ricinus communis is reported to produce fibers with physical characters
similar to cotton, (Vinayaka et al., 2017).
Castor fibers are considerably coarser than cotton and jute fibers which also influence the
surface area and hence binding (Vinayaka et al., 2017).
Having a crystalline structure similar to that of cellulose suggests that the castor fibers will

have higher absorption of dyes, metals and other chemicals and better mechanical properties

compared to similar fibers obtained from other lignocellulosic sources, (Vinayaka et al, 2017).

The crystallite size of caster fiber was found to be 4.8 nm, which is higher than flax fiber
(2.8 nm), curaua (3.43 nm), buriti (3.7 nm), corn stalk fibers(3.8 nm) and cotton fibers (4.7 nm),
(Nijandhan and Muralikannan, 2018).
IV. JUSTIFICATION OF THE TOPIC
Ricinus communis is abundantly found in all over India. The bast fibers offer the advantage
of renewability and biodegradability. They are also reported to posses the properties essential to be
considered as textile fiber. They are most abundantly used for extraction of oil from beans as well as
a major host plant for Eri silkworm and the rest of the plant is treated as waste. Initial studies are also
being conducted to use Ricinus communis as a potential source for polymer composites. The study
has been conducted to use the waste stems for extraction of the fiber and to study the physio-
chemical properties of the fiber to blend with jute. So, keeping in view the tremendous scope for
making various end uses, the investigator has made an attempt to carry out an investigation on
“EXTRACTION OF FIBER FROM Ricinus communis AND BLENDING WITH JUTE FOR
VARIOUS END USES”.
V. TECHNICAL PROGRAMME OF THE WORK:
The proposed study will be carried out based on the following approaches:-
 Selection and collection of material :
Ricinus communis stem will be selected and collected for the study from the local areas of
Jorhat.
 Evaluation of morphological properties of the plant:
The average length and diameter of the plant will be taken with the help of measuring tape,
average weight will be weighed with the help of weighing balance.
 Extraction of fiber from Ricinus communis plant:
The extraction of fiber will be optimized using different concentrations of NaOH and material
to liquor ratio at different time duration by keeping the temperature constant.
 Scouring of fiber:
Scouring is the process of removing foreign substances from the fiber. Scouring will be carried
out by the method adopted by Aaditaa and Jahan, 2018.
 Bleaching of fiber:
Bleaching is the process by which by which natural or any other colouring matters are removed
from the fiber making it completely white. Bleaching will be carried out by the method adopted
by Gogoi et al., 2017.
 Evaluation of physical properties of the extracted fiber:
The physical properties such as length, diameter, wall thickness, bundle strength, fiber strength
and fiber fineness will be carried out by using standard ASTM (American Society for Testing
and Materials) methods.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Infra-red (IR) spectroscopy of the extracted fiber
will be analyzed.
  Evaluation of chemical properties of the extracted fiber:
For estimation of moisture content, ash content, lignin, fats and wax, alpha cellulose and hemi
cellulose content, solubility in different solvents etc, will be carried out by TAPPI Standard
Methods (1980, revised 2018 ).
 Preparation of value added products
Different value added products will be prepared from the extracted fibre.
 Analysis of the data:
Data will be analyzed by using appropriate statistical methods.
 Location of the experiment
Department of Textiles and Apparel Designing, College of Community Science, AAU, Jorhat.

VI. COLLABORATION WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS/ ORGANIZATION:

1. Department of Agricultural Statistics, AAU, Jorhat.

2. Department of Sericulture, AAU, Jorhat.
3. CSIR North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat.
VII. BUDGET ESTIMATED (Approx):

Collection of materials = Rs. 3000

Chemicals = Rs. 7000

Testing = Rs. 20,000

Blending = Rs. 30,000

Travel Expenses = Rs. 10,000

_________________________________________________

Total = Rs. 70,000/- (approx)

VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Aaditaa. and Jahan, S. (2018). Extraction and processing of Bast fibres from. Ficus glomerata- A
new source for non- conventional fibres. Journal of Applied and Natural Science.
10 (2): 661 - 666

Egala, R. and Setti, S. (2017). Experimental investigation on tensile property of Ricinus communis
L plant fiber to make polymer reinforced composites. Materials Today:
Proceedings, ICAAMM. 4:8633–8637

Gogoi, N.; Gogoi, M. and Choudhury, S. (2017). Utilization of agro waste-okra and its
potentiality. Asian Journal of Home Science. (12):250-256

Nijandhan, K. and Muralikannan, R. (2018). Ricinus communis fiber as potential reinforcement for
lightweight polymer composites. Materials Research Express. 5:095307

Vinayaka, D.L.; Vijaykumar, G.; Madhavi, D.; Arpitha, D. and Reddy, N. (2017). Ricinus
communis plant residues as a source for natural cellulose fibers potentially
exploitable in polymer composites. Industrial Crops and Products. 100:126– 131