PRODUCTION OF FIBRE 



IP. in.-'-. 



of Bruised or 

 Over-ripe Fruit 



Fibre. 



Philippine Pina 

 Cloth. 



Necklaces. 



ANDROGRAPHIS 



PANICULATA 

 The Creat 



of the Bombay Presidency, says that strong suckers may be planted 

 In rut-t ii .lamiarv and March and watered until roots are formed. 



Packing. The fruit should be cut off with a sharp knife through the 

 initldlt- of the stalk and a little before it is fully rip<-. In dispatching to a 

 distance each fruit should be wrapped in straw or paper, and deposited if 

 Me in a separate compartment made for itself, or at most a corapart- 

 H irnt for two or three fruits. When either bruised or over-ripe, fermenta- 

 tion takes place and the entire consignment may be ruined through the 

 presence of one fermenting fruit. 



Production of Fibre. The leaves afford a superior fibre, which in 

 the Philippines is woven into a beautiful fabric called pina (or pigna = 

 Spanish for a cone) or batiste d 1 ananas, a fabric resembling the finest 

 muslin. In the Rangpur district, Northern Bengal, the fibre is in 

 considerable demand for the string said to be used by the shoemakers. 

 It is also employed for necklaces in the Southern Maratha country (Goa). 

 Jenkins drew attention to the Khasia pine-apple fibre in 1836 (Trans. Agri.- 

 Hort. Soc., 1867, iii., 137), and Wallich purchased, on the Khasia hills in Khasia. Bags, 

 that year, a bag made of the fibre. Royle speaks of supplies of the fibre 

 obtained from Madras. It will thus be seen that the fibre is by no means 

 unknown in India, though little or no progress has been attained in the 

 establishment of a commercial supply. In 1887 Mr. Weynton read a 

 paper before the East Indian Association on the commercial prospects of prospects of 

 Assam, in which he made special reference to Sylhet as a country in which 

 pine-apple fruit, fibre and alcohol might be produced. Recently Sir 

 J. Buckingham, then of Ainguri, Assam, furnished the Reporter on 

 Economic Products with a sample of the fibre. This was forwarded to the 

 Imperial Institute, London, for opinion and valuation. The late Sir 

 F. A. Abel furnished in reply a most encouraging report, which will 

 be found in The Agricultural Ledger (1898, No. 11). The fibre was found 

 to be fully up to the quality of any hitherto seen in London, and it was 

 thought would probably fetch 20 to 25 per ton. 



For particulars regarding the method of separation of fibre, the 

 machinery employed and the yield obtained in America and other coun- 

 tries, the reader must consult the publications enumerated. Though much 

 advantage might be expected to accrue to India from the organisation of 

 a pine-apple fruit and fibre industry, the fact that so little interest is taken 

 in the subject precludes more detailed treatment in this work. 



Minor Use*. In conclusion it may be added that the minor uses of the Medicine. 

 pine-apple, such as its reputed MEDICINAL properties, the prospects of an 

 industry in the manufacture of alcoholic or other beverages from the 

 juice, also vinegar (see p. 1109), as well as the industrial utilisation of the 

 plant, have been purposely excluded from consideration. 



Methods of 

 Separation. 



Alcohol and 

 Cider. 



D.E.P., 

 i., 240-1. 

 Creat. 



ANDROGRAPHIS PANICULATA, Nees ; Fl. Br. Ind., iv., 

 501; Pharmacog. Ind., iii., 46; ACANTHACE^E. The Creat, Tcirydt, kalmeg, 

 olen-kitaita, shirat-kuchchi, nela-vemu, nila-veppa, nela-bevinagida, kiryato, 

 etc. An annual bitter shrub common throughout the plains of India, 

 from Lucknow to Assam and Ceylon, also cultivated in gardens. 



This forms the principal ingredient of a household MEDICINE called alui, Medicine, 

 which is extensively used in Bengal. The expressed Juice of the leaves with 

 certain spices, such as cardamoms, etc., dried in the sun, is made into little 

 globules and given to infants to relieve griping, etc. The roots and leaves are 

 febrifuge, stomachic, tonic, alterative and anthelmintic. The drug has been 



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