Fiber Extraction from Dual-Purpose Flax

Dual-purpose varieties of flax were extracted using traditional water-retting method as well as enzyme, chemicals, and semicellulosic commercial gel to determine their suitability for different end uses. Different retting treatments resulted in significant variation in important characteristics of flax. The fibers extracted using water retting were significantly finer (p adj < 2 × 10–6) than the fibers extracted using α-amylase, α-amylase + cellulose, cellulose, pectinase, EDTA, gel, and double-retting. Cellulose produced stronger fibers as compared to other retting treatments used in the study. The elongation at break of flax retted using α-amylase was significantly greater than the other retting methods.