Abstract
IN order to avoid the necessity of importing rubber from tropical countries, the Soviet Government has organised investigations of native plants likely to contain this valuable product in their latex. Amongst various plants studied, several species of Chondrilla (Compositae) occurring mainly in the southern sandy regions, proved to be very promising and their cultivation is being carried out on an extensive scale. Green parts of the plant are cut and rubber prepared from the latex. The quantities obtained must be rather small, since only up to 2 per cent of the green mass represents rubber. Recently, however, it was found that certain insects feeding on roots of Chondrilla can be utilised for extracting rubber from the latex (Veltischev and Luppova, Priroda, No. 10, 1932). One of these is a caterpillar of a pyralid moth, Bradyrrhoa gilveolella Tr., which feeds on the roots and constructs round its body a tube formed of condensed latex and sand grains. Up to thirty and more such tubes can be found on the roots of a single plant, and the tubes contain 9–17 per cent of rubber. Another useful insect is the larva of a buprestid beetle, Sphenoptera foveola Gebl., which also feeds on roots of Chondrilla and causes a large outflow of latex solidifying round the root. These swellings contain up to 4 per cent of rubber. Neither insect produces any serious effect on the infested plant, and healthy plants can be infested artificially in order to increase their productivity. Experiments are being made to test the practical and economic side of this method of obtaining rubber.
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A New Source of Rubber. Nature 131, 21 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131021b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131021b0