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How the AIDS Epidemic Brought a Forgotten Desert Plant Back

Since the AIDS crisis beginning in the 1980s, members of the medical profession wear latex gloves as diligently as they do scrubs. Health care workers, with this increased use of protective wear, noticed more and more how the material irritated their skin and developed latex allergies.

Latex allergies are marked by itchy eyes, sneezing, coughing, rash, chest tightness, shock and even life-threatening illness. Health care providers with a latex allergy struggled for a compromise. With the gloves they were uncomfortable, possibly even ill, and without the gloves they were at a higher risk of contracting HIV. The solution: Using natural rubber latex that is hypoallergenic.

Commonly referred to as hevea, most natural rubber latex is often derived from the para rubber tree. Hevea, which is grown in tropical climates, absorbs a variety of tropical proteins. Because of these proteins hevea is the cause of this latex allergy and, therefore, hevea, the world's most common source of rubber, cannot be used to produce hypoallergenic latex.

Commonly used to produce hypoallergenic rubber, synthetic rubber is derived from petroleum. Manufacturers took another look at the guayule plant with rising oil prices and a demand for an environmentally-friendly and natural alternative. Guayule, which is a natural source for hypoallergenic rubber and does not contain any of the tropical proteins found in hevea, grows in the southwest region of the United States and northern Mexico.

Guayule's use as a source for hypoallergenic natural rubber is important-nearly 10 percent of the population has an allergic reaction to hevea-based latex. But the guayule plant is more than just a source of hypoallergenic latex-it's also an excellent cash crop for arid regions. It's so sturdy that it can successfully grow in the desert, and it doesn't require irrigation or pesticides. It can also be used as a feed stock for ethanol production.

Guayule rubber is surprisingly nothing new. Using guayule, Native Americans made rubber balls. Rubber was made from guayule because of a leaf blight outbreak that destroyed the rubber trees in Brazil in the 1920s. Guayule was used to produce latex in the 1940s because the war with Japan made it impossible to import rubber from Malaysia. Quickly after World War II ended and Brazilian trees recovered from the leaf blight, guayule rubber as a source of domestic rubber was abandoned. Despite guayule's natural allure, rubber producers in Southeast Asia were able to produce rubber more economically, and lobbyists worked to keep oil-based synthetic rubber on the market.

Things changed then again. Beginning in the 1970s-in response to the oil embargo- U.S. policy makers began to look at alternatives to oil-based synthetic rubber. Once again began guayule research and development.

The problem with latex allergies became unavoidable because of AIDS: Enter the 1980s. With the demand being so high then and still now, guayule natural rubber is an invaluable product when requiring hypoallergenic products for anyone.

By: Jason Lancaster.

Author Jason Lancaster is a devotee of emerging agricultural biotechnology. You can learn more about guayule at GuayuleBlog.com.

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