RE: YourMateTravels#26 - Walking with Elephants [ENG/DE]

[summertooth]

Wow, what an amazing journey! I have so many questions. First of all, how do those little pots fill with the gum tree stuff? And what is it? Sorry to hear about the crazy car ride, I had one that sounds similar in Jamaica about 20 years ago. Glad you made it ok. Sounds like a fabulous time. Thanks for sharing.

Comments

[yourmate]

Thank you for your comment!
I'm happy you ask:

1. It's rather rough: a 50 cm broad part of the bark is cut off the trunk diagonally. Looks like a flag and goes half-way around the trunk. It's just deep enough to reach the certain vessels which produce the fluid while the other parts remain intact and the tree keeps growing. In this photo you properly see the cut - this one goes all around the trunk though. The tree starts bleeding and the fluid flows along the lower remains of the bark until it reaches the metal drain you see in the upper right. Simply hammered into the tree.
2. The fluid dripping out is natural latex.

Oh, yeah. I'm happy I'm still alive and that you apparently are as well. :)

[summertooth]

WOW, that is really interesting. Thanks for the reply. Is there more processing after harvesting the latex? Or just a bit of drying maybe?

[yourmate]

You're welcome :)

Yes, there surely is!
The raw natural gum consists of only 25-40 % pure latex - rest is water, resin and proteins. With the help of acid the latex is extracted, which then can be processed further.
Unfortunately I don't know what they do in the island or ship it right away - we just stopped at the plantation as we drove by with the bikes. There was nobody we could've asked.