Rubber and phytochemical specialities from desert plants of North America

Abstract

The investigation of under-utilized desert plants, native to the southwestern United States, Baja California and Chihuahua, Mexico, as alternative sources of rubber and phytochemicals, is gaining importance as arid zones increase in area. A significant number of flowering plants, native and common to arid environments, synthesize a variety of organic substances which are suitable substitutes for petroleum-based chemicals (Rodriguez 1980). These natural resources range from rubber polymers and oligomers to biologically active benzofurans, sesquiterpene lactones and phenolics. In North America, about 25 per cent of the United States is semi-arid to arid, while in Mexico, approximately 46 per cent is dryland (Becker et al 1984). Two desert regions which are of great importance to the United States and Mexico, are the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts. Both regions have many unique and endemic plant species that produce significant quantities of organic substances that are economically useful to human communities living in marginal arid lands.