EPISODE 1005 DANDELIONS —RAW LATEX (RUBBER) AND GERMAN WAR INDUSTRY
GERMANY 1941-1945
alanskeoch
January 8,, 2024
All dandelions ooze latex when picked, Latex is rubber and
rubber was needed desperately by German war industry.
Why?
A Tank needs 826 pounds of raw rubber’
A gun carriage needs 409 pounds
A fighter plane needs146 pounds
In 1933 a type of dandelion was discovered in Asia that
contained more latex than others, Hitler ordered seed to
be collected and planted in farm fields taken from Polish
farmers in the early years of World War
two. (1941?) This vast planting was supervised by a jewish botanist whose last name was
Bloch I seem to remember.
Where were these farms? Planted in the fields surrounding Auswitz.
The experiment failed because the war outpaced the growing time.
see pictures below
ALAN SKEOCH
The Need:
Natural rubber sourced from the Para rubber tree faces a plethora of challenges including price instability, geopolitical trade complexities, deforestation restrictions, and disease vulnerabilities. A convenient solution lies in the rubber root dandelion which produces natural rubber comparable to that of the Para rubber tree. However, challenges like yield and impurity levels present obstacles to producing rubber at commercial scale.
The Technology:
OSU faculty have developed an improved methodology that doubles latex yield and produces a purer rubber product. The extraction is also water based and can readily be incorporated into an industrial-scale latex extraction process, resulting in a highly efficient and sustainable process for obtaining rubber from the rubber dandelion.
Commercial Applications:
Producing rubber in this way has wide-ranging commercial applications in various industries, including but not limited to:
- Automotive: durable tires, gaskets, and seals in the automotive sector.
- Medical: gloves, tubing, and medical devices.
- Industrial: components like belts, hoses, and conveyor systems.
- Consumer Products: From footwear to household items and other consumer goods.
The term latex is often used as a synonym for rubber, but the term actually refers to any liquid medium that holds a suspension of tiny polymer particles. Latex is a natural plant substance, but it can also be manufactured by chemical processes.
Natural latex is a plant material found most famously in the rubber tree—but it is actually found in almost 10 percent of all plants. For example, opium is actually the dried latex from the opium poppy. Latex is not the same as sap but is a separate substance, created by the plant as protection against insects. Latex in plants is a complex mixture of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins, and gums that coagulates when exposed to the air. Plants use latex to seal themselves after injury, thereby protecting themselves against insects.
