Lotus fiber research

Over the last decade or so, there have been multiple parties who have studied the economics around lotus silk, in Burma and beyond. Listed here are various studies of lotus silk. The first one is the most germane and gets down to wages for various jobs, identifying where value is added. The single most interesting infoid is that the labor of extracting and spinning the thread dominiates the labor costs – somewhere between roughly 60% and 90% of the labor cost.

  1. Lotus Fiber Value Chain in Myanmar (PDF)
  2. Study on Lotus Fiber Production in Sunn Ye Inn, Sintgaing Township (PDF)
  3. Dynamics of Weaving Industries in Amarapura Township, Mandalay Region
  4. Techniques of Weaving Silk from Self-Woven Silkworms and Lotus Thread of Artisan Phan Thi Thuan in Phung Xa Craft Village, My Duc district, Ha Noi, Vietnam (PDF)
  5. Sustainable textiles from lotus, 2019

Microfiber

There are multiple claims backed up with things like electron microspopy backing up the claims that lotus fiber is a natural microfiber.

Lampoon article

  • Lampoon article

    In 2016, samples were sent to the French Institute of Textile and Clothing for analysis. The results identified lotus fiber as the first known natural microfiber in the world. Microfibers are defined as fibers with a linear density below one dtex—less than one gram per ten thousand meters of yarn. Conventionally, microfibers are synthetic, typically made from polyester or polyamide. Lotus fiber, by contrast, is entirely natural.

Research

Flood mitigation

In 2023 Vietnam started a three year pilot to see what lotus could do to mitigate flooding of the Mekong, while also providing a stock of lotus stems for weaving, amongst other things.

Coloring

  • Whitening with hydrogen peroxide (distributed as dry power sodium percarbonate)

Indigo and henna

Lotus dyed by indigo and henna research seems to be very promising, with lotus taking indigo better than cotton.