The present paper investigates the effect of fibre content and alkali treatment on tensile, flexural
and impact properties of unidirectional Roystonea regia natural-fibre-reinforced epoxy composites which are
partially biodegradable. The reinforcement Roystonea regia (royal palm) fibre was collected from the foliage
of locally available royal palm tree through the process of water retting and mechanical extraction. The poor
adhesion between fibre and matrix is commonly encountered problem in natural-fibre-reinforced composites.
To overcome this problem, specific physical and chemical treatments were suggested for surface modification
of fibres by investigators. Alkali treatment is one of the simple and effective surface modification techniques
which is widely used in natural fibre composites. In the present study both untreated and alkali-treated fibres
were used as reinforcement in Roystonea regia epoxy composites and the tensile, flexural and impact properties
were determined at different fibre contents. The alkali treatment found to be effective in improving the
tensile and flexural properties while the impact strength decreased.