A preliminary study on kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) accessions for fibre and pulp production

R. Asfaliza, C.C. Wong and M. Muhammad Ghawas

Abstract

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.), a herbaceous annual plant of the Malvaceae family, is one of the important source of raw materials for the traditional production of rope, sack, canvas and carpet. A total of 16 accessions were evaluated for growth performance including leaf shape, stem pigmentation, seed size (by volume) and the phenology of each accession. Leaf shape can be classified as palmate or cordate. Stem pigmentation is either light green, dark green or reddish green and it can be distinguished among all accessions. The tallest accessions were MK 13, MK 12, MK 23 and MK 22, while MK 19, MK 13, MK 04 and MK 28 showed the largest basal stem diameter. Accessions that gave high fibre and pulp yields such as MK 04, MK 12, MK 13, MK 19, MK 21, MK 22, MK 23, MK 25 and MK 28 were chosen for further testing on fibre and pulp production at multilocations.

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