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Shi Huang

Chinese scientists are planting high-value alternative “rubber trees” in the Gobi Desert.
China is the world’s largest consumer and importer of natural rubber, mainly to support its massive car sector. Consumption last year is expected to have exceeded 7 million tonnes, over 85 per cent of it imported.
However, the unique Chinese medicinal plant Duzhong (scientific name Eucommia ulmoides) may help to resolve this dependency.
While its bark is a valued material in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Duzhong is also a unique source of natural rubber in China, and is the world’s second-biggest natural rubber resource.
Duzhong rubber is excellent for military use – adding just 3 to 5 per cent can improve the durability and wear resistance of high-performance, puncture-resistant tyres. It is also used to produce advanced electromagnetic shielding composites.
Duzhong was mainly cultivated in central and southern China, particularly on the Yangtze Plain. But yields were limited and the rubber extraction process was challenging.

In a bold 2016 experiment led by Su Yinquan, dean of forestry at Northwest A&F University, farmers contracted 14 hectares (35 acres) of Gobi wasteland in China’s western Xinjiang region to try to cultivate Duzhong there for the first time.
By last year, the once-experimental plot of land had become a thriving Duzhong forest.
“The Duzhong industry is flourishing,” Zhu Mingqiang, a Northwest A&F professor who worked on the initially contracted fields with Su, told China Science Daily earlier this month.
China cultivates Duzhong across 300,000 hectares and the national plan targets 3.3 million hectares by 2030 – including 300,000 hectares more in Xinjiang alone.


The first challenge for the Gobi project was breeding. The technical team set up a breeding base in Lueyang county in Shaanxi, the home province of Northwest A&F University. Guided by key indicators of medicinal and rubber content, the scientists selected more than 50 high-quality germplasms – or genetic plant materials – from Duzhong trees across China for systematic breeding, eventually developing varieties suited for desert cultivation.
The second was increasing rubber extraction. According to China’s 2016-2030 National Duzhong Industry Development Plan, the fruit peel, bark and leaves of the tree contain 15 to 18 per cent, 8 to 10 per cent, and 2 to 3 per cent natural rubber, respectively.
Duzhong bark is used in TCM to lower blood pressure, making it too valuable for use in rubber production. Moreover, most trees die after their bark is harvested.
Again, as the fruit can be used to plant new trees, their prices are very high. They can also be used to extract oil and other active components, precluding rubber extraction despite the high content.
So a key challenge was obtaining higher leaf yields without damaging the trees, or ensuring the growth of more leaves for rubber extraction.
“Transforming the tall, tree-form Duzhong into a low-leafy bush isn’t just about trunk-cutting to promote branching,” Su told China Science Daily in the same article, published on January 21.
Too few branches limited leaf yield, while excess branches caused shading that cut light exposure and hampered the accumulation of beneficial compounds, Su said.
Duzhong trees can grow as tall as 15 metres (nearly 50 feet). The team devised a breeding method to modify them into slightly shorter trees with more leaves. They arrived at an optimal model: six clustered branches per plant, pruned to 3 to 4 metres (10 to 13 feet) for optimal leaf quality and yield.

The final challenge was efficient rubber extraction. Unlike rubber trees, whose latex can be tapped, Duzhong rubber exists as solid particles embedded within tough cell walls, rendering traditional separation methods difficult and inefficient.
In November last year, Zhu achieved a breakthrough: a step-by-step “rubber priority” extraction technology detailed in a paper for ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
The method uses green, low-melting-point solvents combined with biological processing for clean initial gum extraction, followed by targeted methods to isolate the rubber.
This process reduces the energy consumption of initial extraction by about 24 per cent and solvent use by over 60 per cent, while achieving yields and purity exceeding 91 per cent and 99 per cent, respectively.


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It is ‘flourishing’: China’s man-made forest in Gobi produces good rubber for military use

Chinese scientists including Zhu Mingqiang (right) of Northwest A&F University are behind a thriving project to plant high-value alternative “rubber trees” in the Gobi Desert. Photo: Handout

Duzhong trees can grow as tall as 15 metres. Photo: Handout

The team devised a method to breed slightly shorter Duzhong trees with more leaves. Photo: Handout

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China

Experimental cultivation of Chinese medicinal plant pays off as crops thrive in unfamiliar location, boosting national rubber supply


Experimental cultivation of Chinese medicinal plant pays off as crops thrive in unfamiliar location, boosting national rubber supply.


Xinjiang

It is ‘flourishing’: China’s man-made forest in Gobi produces good rubber for military use

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Experimental cultivation of Chinese medicinal plant pays off as crops thrive in unfamiliar location, boosting national rubber supply

Experimental cultivation of Chinese medicinal plant pays off as crops thrive in unfamiliar location, boosting national rubber supply