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The banana is one of the most commonly consumed fruits in Sri Lanka; after the fruit is harvested, the pseudostem is thrown down as waste. The banana pseudostem is a good source of natural fiber. The purpose of this project is to investigate the effects of banana fiber extraction, examine treatment parameters on fiber fineness and establish suitable methods to reduce the fineness that enable banana fibers to be used as textile materials. Ten popular Sri Lankan varieties of banana pseudostem were selected for this study. From the mechanically extracted banana fiber of these 10 varieties, Ambun (genome AAA) was selected for further analysis because it had the lowest fiber fineness. Four layers from the pseudostem of Ambun were extracted and put through a fineness and single fiber strength test. Scanning electron microscopy and fiber linear density were used to observe and determine the fineness of the enzyme and chemical treated banana fiber. The mechanical strength of the treated banana fibers was obtained by using a universal tensile tester machine. The test result showed the second and the third layers of the pseudostem to be the finest. The mechanically extracted fiber of the second and third layers of the pseudostem were put through an enzyme and chemical treatment. Results showed enzyme and chemical combined treated fibers to be the finest, with a reduced diameter from 168.4 µm to 48.8 µm, which is about 71% reduction compared to mechanical extraction.

Fibre grading systems are recognized as essential for both customers and the manufacturers of natural fibres. Identification or grading of fibre content in textiles and fibre industry has become extremely challenging even for experienced parties in the field. The increasing variety of fibres and blending techniques are the reason for this. Consequently, laboratory tests are very important for grading and verification. This research focuses on observing the surface structure of the banana pseudostem fibre in the light microscope, scanning electron microscope, fineness, strength, chemical solubility, burning behaviours, and grading for different banana varieties. Fibres and fibre bundles were inspected visually and tested. One of the focus of this research is to produce quantifiable observations such as general observation test and feeling test. So the quantitative method can lead to exploring the systemic connection between experimental observation and mathematical expression for the grading of banana fibres. Based on the testing results, a novel grading system was introduced for banana fibres varieties (Sri Lankan cultivar).

The objective of this research paper is to establish a suitable reactive dyeing process for banana fiber and comparison between dyeing behaviors of banana fibers with cotton fibers. Ambon (Cavendish type) banana variety was selected for this research study. Data accumulation is done by quantitative research methodology and experimental research strategies for this investigation; 5% enzyme and 6% H2O2-, 2% Na2SiO3-, and 3% NaOH-treated banana fibers were dyed with reactive dye. Banana fibers were dyed with three standard colors (red, blue, and yellow) each with four different concentrations (0.25, 1%, 4%, and 6%) of reactive dye. Testing was conducted to assess the color properties between pretreated banana fiber, dyed banana fiber, and cotton fiber. Color measurement was performed by using a Datacolour 600 spectrophotometers. The ΔE* values were used to determine the degree of color deterioration. Results showed that pretreated fibers become brighter (whiteness) than the raw banana fibers. Reflectance curves of dyed banana fibers were found similar to cotton in all the experiments and confirming the dye absorption tendency is more similar to cotton. Further results indicate that the dyeing behavior of banana is similar to cotton. Therefore, cotton dyeing process can be applied for the banana fibers. Dyeing of banana fiber was carried out with a reactive type of dye, which provided better washing fastness properties than cotton fibers.