**Abstract**

In recent years industries are attempting to decrease their dependency on petroleum-based fuels and products due to increased environmental issues. The tremendous increase in production and use of plastics in every sector of life has led to huge plastic waste disposal problems and also an environmental threat. In order to prevail over the present scenario, the viable and cost-effective approaches are to prepare eco-friendly bio-composites based on non-wood forest products (NWFP), a part of forest wealth of the globe, especially natural fibres, agricultural wastes and extractives. Natural fibres and extractives have many advantages viz. low density, low cost, considerable toughness properties, nontoxicity, sustainability and biodegradability. NWFP based composites may be utilized to produce non-structural parts for diverse applications in various industries as high-performance materials with interesting properties for specific applications viz. furniture, thermal, acoustic insulations and automotive industries etc. In the present chapter, opportunities of extractives, cellulosic and lignocellulosic fibres from non-wood forest products in Bio-composites will be discussed.

**Keywords:** Non-wood forest products, Bio-composites, Tannins, Laccase, Fibres, Agriculture wastes

### **1. Introduction**

Biocomposites are composites formed by the mixture of two or more than two constituents which are firmly stacked in a specific orientation in order to provide stability and toughness as per their requirement. Composites may be synthetic, biocomposites or natural composites. Natural composites are the wood, bamboo, silk, cellulose, and some animal products viz. feather, horn etc. Bio-composites are materials formed by reinforcement of natural fibres into adhesive or a matrix. The matrix may be a natural, synthetic material or an amalgamation of natural and synthetic materials. Environmental concerns over the synthetic matrix and further cost of synthetic fibres have led the encouragement of scientific community of using natural fibres as reinforcement material in polymeric composites.

### **2. Non wood forest products**

The non wood forest products (nwfps) comprise all the forest products other than timber and fuelwood and are used by human beings since the time immemorial [1–3]. NWFPs include medicinal plants, essential oils, spices, edible wild

plants, gums, resins and oleoresins, fatty oils, tanning materials, natural organic colouring materials, katha and cutch, oxalic acid, fibres and flosses, beverages and narcotics, fodder and forage plants, saponins, fish poisons, insecticides, green manure, beads, rubber plants, plants useful for paper, basket and wicker work including canes, beedi leaf etc., miscellaneous materials including thatching and broom materials. Besides these plant products, animal products such as lac, honey, silk, horns, ivory and hides (of forest origin) are included among the nwfps [4–6]. Developing countries especially tropical region of the world more than three-fourths of the populations are dependent on nwfps for their nutrition, primary health care and livelihood subsistence. Therefore, nwfps play an important role in the daily lives of local population in particular rural and poor people dependency on nwfps for their daily needs of food, fodder, medicines, gums, construction material, etc. In addition to local consumption, nwfps are also traded in local, regional, national and international markets and the trade in nwfps not only generates employment opportunities but also contributes in the economic development of the country [7–9]. Among the nwfps fibres and flosses, bamboo and canes, tans and dyes, essential oils are important forest bio-products for livelihood support to marginal peoples residing in forest areas. After processing of the essential products (dyes, essential oils etc.), the left over biomass may be utilized for diverse industrial applications. The importance of these nwfps lies in the following facts.

## **2.1 Fibres and flosses**

A wide range of plants yielding fibre occur in the forests wealth. Fibres are obtained from tissues of different parts of certain woody plants, which are used for various traditional applications such as making cloth, rope, mat and cordages etc. [10, 11].
