NR from Russian dandelions?

ERJ staff report (RD)

Aachen, Germany - Researchers from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, a German research company, claim to have optimised the Russian dandelion to make it suitable for large-scale rubber production, a recent company statement said.

Currently Hevea Brasiliensis trees are tapped to produce natural rubber latex, but this can cause allergic reactions and so is clearly an issue with clinical products, Frauhofer said.

A fungus is also creating concern for rubber cultivators. In South America the infection is now so widespread that large-scale cultivation has become virtually impossible, the company commented, adding that the disease now also appears to have taken root in Southeast Asia's rubber belt.

Once a Russian dandelion is cut, latex seeps out, but this is difficult to use as it polymerises immediately. Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Aachen have now come a step nearer to large-scale rubber production from dandelions, the statement said.

“We have identified the enzyme responsible for the rapid polymerisation and have switched it off,” says Dirk Prüfer, head of department at the IME. “If the plant is cut, the latex flows out instead of being polymerised. We obtain four to five times the amount we would normally.

If the plants were to be cultivated on a large scale, every hectare would produce 500 to 1000 kg of latex per growing season.” The dandelion rubber has not caused any allergies so far, making it ideal for use in medical products, the company added.

Prüfer said the next step would be to cultivate the optimised plants using conventional breeding techniques, a process which he estimates could take five years.

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Press release from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft