In fact, sisal is not a plant native to China, but a perennial tropical hardwood fiber plant, which is native to Mexico and is now cultivated in many areas. Moreover, sisal is a hard fiber crop with the largest consumption and the widest planting range in the world.
Sisal is a kind of agave plant, also known as pineapple hemp. This is because it looks like the upper branch of a pineapple. This kind of plant has strong adaptability, barren tolerance, drought tolerance and vigorous growth. Although sisal is a tropical plant, it is also widely cultivated in China, especially in the Yangtze River valley and southern China. Many people mainly plant it as an ornamental plant.
However, sisal is widely used, one of which is its economic value. The fiber made of sisal is tough, not only very wear-resistant, salt-alkali resistant, but also very corrosion-resistant, and can be used for a long time. Because of these excellent characteristics, sisal fiber is also widely used in transportation, fishery, petroleum, metallurgy and many other industries. In China, sisal fiber mainly depends on imports, after all, it is not planted much. Even if there is, it is mainly ornamental value, and it rarely forms industrial cultivation.
Besides this use, sisal has high medicinal value. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that sisal has the effects of cooling blood, stopping bleeding, reducing swelling and detoxifying, and is mainly used to treat tuberculosis, hemoptysis, dysentery, carbuncle and hemorrhoids. Modern medical research has also found that some components in sisal also have pharmacological effects such as lowering cholesterol, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor.