ramie, a bast fiber, is obtained from the plant boehmeria nivea gaud and is produced mainly in china, brazil, the philippines, japan, and the united states and also in some parts of india. the decorticated fiber cannot be used as such since this contains a quantity of encrustng materials collectively known as gum, which normally amounts to 20-30 of the decorticated fiber; the gum content should be brought down to at least 7-9 for good spinnability and yarn properties and for ensuring the durability of the products experimental data are presented which show that, of several bacterial cultues isolated from different sources, four were very efficient in removing the gum or ramie fiber to a considerable extent without any adverse effect on the fiber cellulose. by using the best culture, sw//i, a simple and inexpensive microbial process was developed for the degumming of ramie fiber. a combined microbial and chemical process that was also developed is simpler and more economical than the chemical process itself in that smaller amounts of chemicals are consumed and fewer processing difficulties encountered. 14 refs