About Jute

Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae. However, it has been reclassified within the family Sparrmanniaceae.

Jute is one of the most affordable natural fibres and is second only to cotton in amount produced and variety of uses of vegetable fibres. Jute fibres are composed primarily of the plant materials cellulose (major component of plant fibre) and lignin (major components of wood fibre). It is thus a ligno-cellulosic fibre that is partially a textile fibre and partially wood. It falls into the bast fibre category (fibre collected from bast or skin of the plant) along with kenaf, industrial hemp, flax (linen), ramie, etc. 

History 

For centuries, jute has been an integral part of culture of Bengal, in the entire southwest of Bangladesh and some portions of West Bengal. During the British Raj in the 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the raw jute fiber of Bengal was carried off to the United Kingdom, where it was then processed in mills concentrated in Dundee. Initially, due to its texture, it could only be processed by hand until it was discovered in that city that by treating it with whale oil, it could be treated by machine. The industry boomed ("jute weaver" was a recognized trade occupation in the 1901 UK census), but this trade had largely ceased by about 1970 due to the appearance of synthetic fibers.