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Rubber tapping is the process by which latex is collected from a rubber tree. The latex is harvested by slicing a groove into the bark of the tree at a depth of one-quarter inch (6.4 mm) with a hooked knife and peeling back the bark. Trees must be approximately six years old and six inches (150 mm) in diameter in order to be tapped for latex.
Slaughter tapping is an obsolete method of extracting large quantities of natural latex from rubber trees in a forest environment. Before commercial exploitation of latex-bearing trees such as Hevea brasiliensis in the Amazon Basin and Funtumia elastica in the Congo, native populations limited harvesting to non-lethal tapping of the latex.
Rubber latex is extracted from rubber trees. The economic life of rubber trees in plantations is around 32 years, with up to 7 years being an immature phase and about 25 years of productive phase. The soil requirement is well-drained, weathered soil consisting of laterite, lateritic types, sedimentary types, nonlateritic red or alluvial soils.
The rubber tree takes between seven and ten years to deliver the first harvest. [6] Harvesters make incisions across the latex vessels, just deep enough to tap the vessels without harming the tree's growth, and the latex is collected in small buckets.
Furthermore, land used for rubber production is being converted to palm-oil plantations in order to produce biofuel, and labor costs reduce the profitability of Hevea brasiliensis plantations, as each tree must be manually tapped in order to harvest its latex. Rising oil-prices limit the economic viability of synthetic rubbers, and synthetic ...
Latex can be extracted from this plant for the manufacture of natural rubber. [1] Other names for this vine are eta , the white rubber vine and the Congo rubber plant. [ 2 ] Congo rubber was a commercial rubber exported from the Congo Free State starting in 1890, most notable for its forced harvesting under conditions of great human suffering ...
Palaquium gutta. Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus Palaquium in the family Sapotaceae, which is primarily used to create a high-quality latex of the same name. The material is rigid, naturally biologically inert, resilient, electrically nonconductive, and thermoplastic, most commonly sourced from Palaquium gutta; it is a polymer of isoprene which forms a rubber-like elastomer.
Castilla elastica, the Panama rubber tree, is a tree native to the tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. [3] It was the principal source of latex among the Mesoamerican peoples in pre-Columbian times .