SUSTAINABLE UTILIZATION OF GUM AND RESIN BY IMPROVED TAPPING TECHNIQUE IN SOME SPECIES

Mr. Balakrisnan NAIR

Department of plant sciences, Peermade development society, IDUKKI, Kerala
India



Gums and resins form an important group of non-wood forest products. The industrial applications of gum and resin have expanded tremendously in recent years. They are used in many unrelated industries such as paper, textile, petroleum, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, varnishes, lacquers and soaps. Even though gum is produced by a large number of plants, their commercial exploitation is restricted to members of the Leguminosae, Sterculiaceae and Combretaceae. Gum is also extracted from seeds, seaweed and microorganisms. Resins are obtained from members of Pinaceae (rosin, amber), Leguminosae (copal), Dipterocarpaceae (dammar), Burseraceae (elemi, frankincense, guggul) and Umbelliferae (asafoetida, galbanum). Gums and resins are considered as the byproducts or end products of certain metabolic pathways. Poor soil, drought and other hostile situations promote the production of gums and resins. Indonesia, India, China and Sudan are the major producers of gums and resins. Millions of people worldwide, especially in developing countries depend on collection of gums, resins and latex as a means for their livelihood. However, the market of these products has declined over years due to several reasons. The main reasons of this decline are the unscientific and brutal methods of tapping, over exploitation leading to the death of the tapped trees and erratic supply of these products in the market. Commercial tapping of gum and resin is done by blazing, peeling or making deep cuts on the bole. On account of injurious and wasteful tapping and over-exploitation the populations of gum and resin producing plants have markedly declined. On the absence of cultivation of these plants there is a grave concern about the loss of the wild germplasm. Simple and effective tapping techniques which ensure optimum yield and regeneration of tapped trees have been developed for gum Arabic (Acacia senegal), gum ghatti, (Anogeissus latifolia)), neem gum, (Azadirachta indica), guggul (Commiphora weightii), and gum karaya (Sterculia urens) which ensure sustainable production of these material. The details of these methods are discussed.