The ancient Aztec and Mayan civilisations were perhaps the first to begin making paper out of sisal leaves. Since then, the stiff, green sword-like leaves have been used to make twine, cloth, and carpets. The plant itself is also used to make mezcal, a distilled alcoholic beverage.
Now, in a move to make menstrual hygiene products more environmentally sustainable, scientists at Stanford University have reported a method to produce from sisal leaves a “highly absorbent and retentive material”.
As a result, the researchers posit in their Nature Communications Engineering paper, the material can potentially replace cotton, wood pulp, and chemical absorbents in sanitary napkins.
