Spanish Broom (Spartium junceum L.) as New Fiber for Biocomposites: The Effect of Crop Age and Microbial Retting on Fiber Quality

Table 2

Effect of crop age and microbial strain on chemical composition and crystallinity of broom fibers.

	Humidity; (%)	Extractives (%)	Lignin; (%)	Ash; (%)	Pentosans (%)	Cellulose^†† (%)	X-ray index of crystallinity (%)
2-year-old NCIMB10690	5.47^a	6.34^a	15.15^bc	0.37^a	4.55^a	73.94^ab	77.2^a
2-year-old NCIMB9539	5.10^a	6.47^a	13.01^c	0.30^a	4.04^a	76.48^a	73.7^b
7-year-old NCIMB10690	5.26^a	7.02^a	17.11^b	0.32^a	4.75^a	71.12^b	73.4^b
7-year-old NCIMB9539	5.05^a	7.32^a	21.71^a	0.23^a	4.42^a	66.55^c	70.3^c
Analysis of variance
Crop age (A)	n.s.	n.s.	**	n.s.	n.s.	*	*
Strain (S)	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
A × S	n.s.	n.s.	*	n.s.	n.s.	*	*

Mean values followed by the same letters are not significantly different for 𝑃≤0.05 following a two-way ANOVA test with crop age and microbial strain as variability factors. ^∗𝑃≤0.05; ^∗∗𝑃≤0.01; n.s.: not significant (𝑃≥0.05). ^††Determined as difference.