Ramie-degumming methodologies: A short review

Ramie (Boehmeria niveaL.), a perennial herb, is an important bast fiber plant. Its fiber with the advantages of attractive luster, high tenacity, enhanced strength, and good microbial resistivity is well known as the queen of natural fibers. The abundant cellulose fibers in ramie raw materials are stuck tightly by gums consisting of pectic substances, hemicelluloses, and little lignin. The gum should remove from the ramie raw material through degumming process to separate fibers, unveil unique fiber properties, and improve fiber-spinning ability to fulfill textile requirements. Low degumming efficiency and high environmental pollution are the major problems hindering the utilization of ramie fibers. Ramie degumming involves the degradation of pectin and hemicelluloses, which requires chemical, physical, biological treatment, or a combination of several treatments. No stereotyped parameters of the given degumming method have been yet established for the extraction of textile-grade ramie fibers. This review evaluated integrated methodology involving chemical, physical, biological and biochemical methods to degum raw ramie and obtain textile-grade refined fibers.