CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITES REINFORCED WITH VEGETABLE FIBERS Marie-Ange Arsène 1 , Holmer Savastano Jr. 2 , Seyed M. Allameh 3 , Khosrow Ghavami 4 , Wole O. Soboyejo 5 1 Laboratoire COVACHIMM , Département de Chimie- UFR SEN, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, campus de Fouillole, 97157 Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe (FWI). marsene@princeton.edu 2 Rural Construction Group, Faculty of Animal Sciences and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo, C.P. 23, 13635-900, Pirassununga, SP, Brazil. holmersj@usp.br 3 Princeton Materials Institute and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Princeton University, P.O. Box CN5263, Princeton, NJ 08544-5263, USA. allameh@princeton.edu 4 Department of Civil Engineering, PUC-Rio, 22453-900, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ghavami@civ.puc-rio.br 5 Princeton Materials Institute and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Princeton University, P.O. Box CN5263, Princeton, NJ 08544-5263, USA. soboyejo@princeton.edu ABSTRACT This paper presents a review of research on the development of cementitious matrix composites reinforced with vegetable fibers for non-conventional construction. The study emphasizes the possibility of recycling wastes from agriculture and industry in the production of building materials. Following a brief review of the material selection, details of the hierarchical functionally graded composite microstructures of natural materials and composites are presented. The effects of composite reinforcement on composite strength are then discussed. This is followed by a review of recent work on the fracture toughness and toughening of natural fiber-reinforced composites. The effects of aging are described before highlighting the potential emerging applications of vegetable fiber-reinforced composites for roofing tiles in affordable housing. 1