Natural fibers, such as baggase and bamboo were the focus of this work in producing a new high performance paper. In this work, bagasse pith with a porous structure, which is helpful for the attachment of a functional material, was used to produce a high performance composite paper. Powdered bamboo leaf particles were attached as the functional material to the bagasse pith using a variety of conditions involving treatment times, bamboo leaf concentrations and pith length. The smaller particles (less than 45 mu m) which were classified by sieve showed a higher degree of attachment than the bamboo leaf particles which were of a size greater than 45 mu m. It was found that a degassing process increased the amount of attached bamboo particles, by about 3 times. Moreover decreasing the volume of water necessary for particle flow resulted in a higher adhesion ratio of bamboo particles by about 50%. This was achieved without any chemical processing. Most bamboo particles around the inlet of the pith pores were easily removed on washing. Furthermore, cationization resulted in an improved adhesion ratio and a greater adhesion of the bamboo particles to the pith. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012