A new method that uses fungal treatment to increase rubber yields from plants has been developed by Dr. Naeem Ali, a faculty member at the Department of Microbiology in Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) in Islamabad, Pakistan, along with this PhD student Shomaila Sikandar and American collaborator Dr. Katrina Cornish from the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at the Ohio State University (OSU) in the US.
Publishing a US patent (US 20160304830A1) for the technique, Dr. Naeem said the innovative method in question would help extract value added products from plants’ residues.
According to Dr. Naeem, their method could be used in conjunction with presently known conventional natural rubber extraction techniques to enhance their efficiencies, and would help enhance natural rubber yields using fungal enzymes.
He added that the methods can be used with minimal capital investment, and offer great implications in the tyre and rubber manufacturing industrial units as well as the agriculture sector. He said the technique would help create job opportunities in transport and related sectors at local and international levels.
Plant-derived natural rubber is used in over 50,000 different products. There is a strong reliance on natural rubber for the manufacture of these products, primarily because synthetic alternatives cannot match the high-performance properties of natural rubber required for many applications. High performance synthetic rubbers also tend to be prohibitively expensive.
Dr. Naeem said the current extraction methods in practice were unable to fully separate solid natural rubber from non-rubber plant matter, limiting extractable solid rubber yields.He also said that the current methods used today are often highly-mechanised, utilising expensive, specialised equipment.
“It would be advantageous to increase the yield of natural rubber from plants utilising mechanically or biochemically simple processes. The current invention will therefore offer cost-effective and environmental friendly procedure to local and international industrialists to extract natural rubber for commercial application,” he said.