Lemba (Curculigo latifolia) Leaf as a New Materials for Textiles

Indigenous people of the past as well as of the present have an intimate and direct relationship with the renewable natural resources of their environment. Looking back to those past times it is apparent that a few plant families played a prominent role as a source of edible and no edible raw materials. Lemba or know with its scientific names as Curculigo capitulata or Curculigo latifolia mainly found in the swampy area in tropical Asia and in Australia. In Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia the lemba leaf fibers are made into fishing net, ropes and twines. In Lahu, northern of Thailand use the leaves of Curculigo capitulata like banana leaves for wrapping. In Japan, curculigo latifolia from Malaysia also had been identified as a natural sweetener that gives a very sweet taste/sensation when its seeds or parts of the plant are chewed. The plants grow about 1 meter tall and the petiole up to 1 meter long that consist of blade elliptical leaf, 30-100 cm times5-10 cm, subglabrous. The leafstalks are one-third the length of the leaves and they overlap one another at their bases to form a thick stem. Lemba fibers are very strong, durable, lightweight and thin. The species found in Sarawak area mainly from the Curculigo litfolia, which grows in great abundance on old cultivated fields near longhouse in Sarawak area. These fibers had been used by the indigenous people in Sarawak area as strings to for tie and dye process for dyeing weaving fabrics. The waste from these fibers has not been properly utilized after those processes. This research is looking into processing the raw fibers that carded from the lemba leaf and making them as yarns for the fabric and natural dyes. With these elements, it is to develop the lemba leaf as new materials for textile purposes