Natural rubber serum (NRS) is the aqueous portion of natural rubber latex which is separated from the rubber after the coagulation process and contains various water-soluble non-rubber substances. Recognising the potential usefulness of these substances, the RRIM and the Yokohama Rubber Co. of Japan embarked on a joint project in 1987 to develop a process for recovering and concentrating this NRS. The resultant process has been licensed to a Malaysian-Japanese joint venture company, which currently undertakes the commercial operation and uses the concentrated NRS to produce organic fertilizers.The main naturally-occurring constituent of NRS is a unique pseudo-sugar commonly called Quebrachitol more accurately identified by its chemical names, 2-o-methyl-(-)-chiroinositol or 2-o-methyl-L-inositol. It has recently received much worldwide attention from various researchers, particularly in the biochemical, pharmaceutical and medical fields. The main property of interest is its optical activity which has enabled it to be conveniently converted into various inositol derivatives of biological importance previously synthesized from myoinositol via tortuous routes. The significance of this development lies in the discovery that some of these inositol derivatives are connected with the “cell-signalling mechanism” for transmission of information between living cells. It is therefore believed that by suitable chemical modifications, other special inositol derivatives may be synthesized with potential applications as anti-cancer drugs, antibiotics and inhibitors against specific enzymic processes. A number of different aminocyclitol antibiotics have in fact been synthesized from quebrachitol, and these have been shown to be suitable for a variety of uses such as antifungal protection, treatment of pneumonia, as an anorexia agent, as a bacteritide and as a parasiticide.Based on the present high degree of interest in quebrachitol and its apparent usefulness, it makes logical sense to try to recover as much as possible of the NRS which results from the processing of NR latex and would otherwise go to waste, and to view it as a possible source of high value-added end products. Indeed, it is not inconceivable that at some time in the future, the Hevea tree may be tapped more for the value of the non-rubber items rather than for the rubber content alone.
Identifier
valet-20100512-150917
Identifier
vital1:65667
Language
EN
Relation
Paper presented at the Proc. of an IRRDB Symp. on New Mater. from Nat. Rubb., Tun Abdul Razak Laboratory Hertford, England, 13 Sept. 1993
Relation
In: Proc. of an IRRDB Symp. on New Mater. from Nat. Rubb., Tun Abdul Razak Laboratory Hertford, England, 13 Sept. 1993
Rights
Yes|No
Type
Article
Source
RRIM/LGM
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Lau, C.M., . New materials from natural rubber serum. 12/05/2010
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