ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF NATURAL RUBBER: THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

EU-PEARLS, a new FP7 EU research project coordinated by Wageningen University and research Centre, focuses on the development of integral production chains using two new crops for the production and exploitation of natural rubber and latex in Europe: the North-American shrub Parthenium argentatum (guayule) and Taraxacum kok-saghyz (Russian dandelion).
Natural rubber is a unique and valuable raw material that is essential to industry, medicine, personal care, and transportation. In many applications it cannot be replaced by synthetic - petroleum - based materials. Currently, its major source is the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis. Increased worldwide demand for natural rubber and latex, a fungal disease potentially capable of destroying Hevea brasiliensis plantations in South-East Asia, and allergies to Hevea brasiliensis latex, are important drivers to develop alternative - European sources of latex and natural rubber.
The EU-PEARLS project includes the collection and creation of new germplasm, and research into the biochemistry and genetics of rubber biosynthesis, breeding and agronomy of guayule and Russian dandelion, processing of the crops, biorefining the by-products, and product development.