Gross morphology and absorption capacity of cell-fibers from the fibrous vascular system of loofah (Luffa cylindrica)

This paper investigates the liquid absorbency potential of the vegetal cell-fibers (CF) of Luffa cylindrica (LC) in relation to their microscopic morphology. Absorption after drainage and centrifugation, involving deionized water and saline solutions, is measured on both the raw fibers of the vegetal net and the cell-fibers previously extracted from ligneous fibrous strands (FS) with NaOH-anthraquinone alkali treatment. The microspongy structure of the raw FS-luffa, observed in the vegetal material by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), is formed by multicellular fibers (from 250 to 500) bonded together with a large lumen (5 to 30 mum) and containing small punctuations along the fibers as interconnections. Liquid absorption results show that this original structure of these promising fibers should contribute to good absorption capacity: 18.4g/g and 22.6g/g are respectively obtained with for broken raw FS and CF-luffa fluff treated by 5 wt % NaOH. Their absorption capacity for liquid improves with an additional formaldehyde treatment.