Impetus Bioscience - Impetus Bioscience ist ein unabhängiges Unternehmen, das auf qualitative und quantitative PCR-Analytik spezialisiert ist.

Animal luxury fibers

Luxury fibers are defined as precious animal hair fibers not derived from sheep`s wool. Well-known examples are cashmere, alpaca, angora, mohair, cashgora, camel and vikunja. According to the garment labelling requirements within the EU, these fibers have to be labelled by using the corresponding species name. The increasing demand for luxury fibers, high prices and the very restricted availibility cause adulteration or false declaration.
Especially cashmere, one of the finest and most expensive animal hair fibers is the frequently object of fraud. The price per kg cashmere is up to 100 US$. Prices for merino sheep`s wool are between 2 and 3 US$. Some experts assume that 60 to 90% of all cashmere products are not labelled correctly.

Plant fibers

Hemp, nettle, ramie, kenaf, sisal, flax, jute and cotton have been used for thousands of years for diverse purposes.
The use of natural plant fibers in technical fields of application is increasing continuously. Completely new technical product lines like compound fiber materials in the car industry or thermal insulations in the building industry have been established in the meantime.

Many producers complain about problems with the qualitative and quantitative characterization of natural fibers. For example it is nearly impossible to quantify the percentage of fine and bleached hemp and flax fibers in threads with the help of microscopy.
Adulteration and false declaration is an increasing problem. For example there are great differences in prices between nettle and ramie. Fibers of this plants cannot be differentiated with microscopic techniques and as a consequence they are often traded under the same name.

Testing methods

The common method to identify natural animal and plant fibers is SEM (Scanning electron microscopy). The method has to rely on typical physical parameters such as internal morphology, fiber diameter and cuticle scale height but even minor processing steps can influence visible structures so that an unambiguously identification is not possible.
Fibers that have been exposed to processing steps commonly used in the textile industry cause additional problems. Heating, bleaching and staining often complicate or prevent a microscopic analysis. Certain polymer laminations like superwash, completely disguise morphological features.
Certain fiber combinations, e.g. raw fine yak hair and raw brown cashmere cannot be differentiated.
Furthermore, this method is very time-consuming, expensive and strongly depends on the experience of the microscopist.

An important advantage of the method we have developed is it`s independence of visible morphological structures. Raw as well as chemically processed fibers can be identified unambiguously.
We have developed DNA analytical test systems for the specific and sensitive detection of all commercially relevant animal and plant fibers suitable to identify the species even from blends.

LEGAL ASPECTS

The following excerpts originate from the German textile labelling regulation (Textilkennzeichnungsverordnung; 1993; EWR/Anh. II: 371L0307, 383L0623, 337L0140).

„Wool” is defined as the fibers originating from the fur of sheep (Ovis aries). Blends of fibers from sheep with hairs from the following animal species can be labelled as wool:
Alpaca, lama, camel, cashmere, mohair, angora, vikunja, yak, guanako, beaver, otter.

The net weights of the different raw textile components contained in a textile product have to be declared as percentages.starting with the highest one.
Technically unavoidable differences between the declared and the actual net weights must not exceed 3
A maximum of 2% fibers that have not been declared can be tolerated if it is adventitious or technically unavoidable and not the result of an intentional addition (Tolerance of foreign fibers).