Any hair like raw material directly obtainable from an Animal, Vegetable or Mineral source that can be convertible after spinning into yarns and then into fabric.Under them there are various categories:
(1) Plant(2) Animal
(3) Minerals
Vegetable fibers
They can be further on classified as:
(a) fibre occurring on the seed (raw cotton , java cotton)
(b) phloem fiber (flax, ramie ,hemp, jute)
(c) tendon fibre from stem or leaves (manila hemp, sisal,hemp etc)
(d) fibre occurring around the trunk (hemp palm)
(e) fibre of fruit/ nut shells(coconut fibre – Coir) cotton and linen are the most important among them.
Bast fibres
- Low Lignin content – Linen or Flax (raw and bleached) and Ramie
- High Lignin content – Jute, Hemp