•A review of bio-based composite is presented.•Focus on the utilisation of natural textile material in composite is given.•Overview on issues in composite fabrication using textile materials is emphasized.•Advantages, limitations and suggestions for future development are summarised. This paper gives an overview of utilising natural textile materials as reinforcements for engineering composites applications. The definition and types of textile materials are addressed to provide readers a thoughtful view on the role of these materials in a structural composite system. Available material properties of natural textile and their composites are critically reviewed here. In general, these materials are categorised into fibre, yarn and fabric forms. The load bearing capacity of natural textile fibre reinforced polymer composites is governed by the quantity, alignment and dispersion properties of fibres. It has been found that the natural fibre reinforced composites are limited to use in low to medium load bearing applications. However, a limited research work has been performed to date and there is a significant gap between the high performance textile fabric and their use as reinforcement in fibre reinforced composite materials.