Determination of Rubber in Rubber-Bearing Plants
Abstract THE determination of the true rubber content of both raw and manufactured rubber has been the subject of extensive investigation. Search has failed to reveal any corresponding record covering studies applicable to rubber-bearing plants. The authors' investigations, covering such methods as have been published, demonstrate their inaccuracy and inadequacy for practical use. There has never been published, as far as the authors have been able to determine, any thorough, systematic study of the factors which determine the value and accuracy of any method for the quantitative determination of the pure caoutchouc contained in a given specimen of plant tissue. The work embodied in the present communication was undertaken as an essential step towards the solution of some of the complex problems in the production of rubber from the guayule shrub. Without some method for determining with completeness and accuracy in terms of pure caoutchouc the value of any given sample it would have been fruitless to proceed to studies of the metabolism of the plant. The equally important problems in the control of commercial operations, both in field and factory, hinged at the outset on the development of an accurate means to determine the rubber content of the plant.