Traditional corn husk dolls may soon be wearing new corn husk clothing.

Textile scientist Yiqi Yang of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has discovered a way to use corn husk fibers to make fabric, an application for the crop byproduct that could soon become widespread.

Yang said no other large Midwestern crop has a byproduct as useful as corn husks may be. Because corn is already grown in large quantities, husks are readily available at a low cost.

“We can get the raw material very cheap, so we have a very profitable product,” Yang said. “We’re growing crops for food and at the same time for textiles.”

Yang has done research for 15 years to find an agricultural byproduct that could be used as a source of textile fibers. Sugar cane, pineapple and corn protein were all tested, but nothing was as good in quality, quantity and cost as the corn husk, he said.

“[With other sources], you just don’t have the quantity to attract the attention, but this one is different,” he said. “This is a corn husk nation.”

The fabric made from corn husks is not inferior to other fabrics and has properties similar to both cotton and linen.

“It’s much more comfortable than synthetics such as polyester,” Yang said.

Farmers will benefit enormously from this application, he said, and many people are already interested in the corn husk fabric.

“Corn is a major product of Iowa, too,” Yang said. “I got a lot of response from people in Iowa. Midwest states can make this product very hot, very popular.”

Yang is getting response from beyond the Midwest as well.

“When CNN reported this idea, other countries overseas were interested immediately,” he said.

Jean Parsons, assistant professor of textiles and clothing, said if the fabric is wearable and comfortable, she would definitely use it for clothes.

“I would use fabric made out of corn husks if it had an appealing drape or hand,” Parsons said.

Scientists at Iowa State aren’t currently working on crop use for textiles, said Larry Johnson, professor of food science and human nutrition.

Johnson directs the Center for Crops Utilization Research. But ISU researchers are in the process of developing other uses for excess crop material, or biomass, he said.

“There is quite a bit of research going on at Iowa State to convert this biomass into other products,” Johnson said. “Right now we are not working on textile fibers that I know of, but we’re converting it into industrial chemicals and biofuels.”

More than 50 percent of the Midwest corn biomass is left in the fields to protect the soil from erosion and nutrient loss, Johnson said.

But it’s an unnecessarily large percentage, he said.

Half of the biomass could be harvested and used without damaging the soil, he said.

“There has been a long-standing interest in using the corn husks, the cobs, the stem, the leaves, and all kinds of biomass that are not being used,” Johnson said. “[ISU] President [Gregory] Geoffroy has allocated funds to support a bio-economy initiative where this kind of work will be done.”

One application that is being studied at Iowa State is converting corn stalks and soybean flower oil into fiber boards, which can be used as building material.

“The Midwest states do not have a lot of forests, so we are short of wood fibers,” said Kuo Monlin, associate professor of natural resource ecology and management. “In Iowa alone, we have about 24 million tons of corn stalks available for harvest. If we can use corn stalk fibers, we can probably be self-sufficient and not have to import wood from other states.”

Monlin said using corn husks for textiles would be even more important to the economy of the Midwestern states.

“Corn husks have the distinctive properties of having long fibers, so I think the person in Nebraska using corn husk fibers as woven material has a very good idea,” Monlin said.

Any time any material is made out of a byproduct, Yang said, the value of the product increases to the benefit of the farmers.

“We can add 30 [cents] value addition to each pound of the dry fiber, at least,” Yang said. “You tell me the value we can give to the farmers. That’s excellent.”