Sustainable Development of Hibiscus Sabdariffa- Indigenous Practices

Global trends towards sustainable development have brought to light natural, renewable, biodegradable raw materials, and bast fibres are amongst them. In the present study the current status of the cultivation process, harvesting and retting methods of Hibiscus Sabdariffa (mesta) are studied and documented along with its current uses and socio economic factors influencing the production of the crop. Retting is one of the main challenges confronted during the processing of the bast plants for the production of long fibre. Water retting is one of the traditional methods for separating the long bast fibres in which indigenous bacteria attack the gums and hemicelluloses, yielding much water pollution. Currently much interest has been focussed on the sustainable anaerobic microbial retting. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of anaerobic microbial retting and water retting on the fibre yield, strength, fineness, colour and lustre, density and defects of mesta fibre (Hibiscus Sabdariffa). Mesta fibres were extracted using microbial retting (microbial consortium from CIRCOT) and water retting and their physical characteristics were investigated. The physical characteristics showed a significantly better fibre after treating it with microbial consortium compared to aerobic water retting in terms of its strength, fineness and density.