New lab techniques should help speed development of guayule, a desert shrub, as a source of high-quality hypoallergenic latex. The techniques are for extracting natural latex from guayule samples and measuring the amounts yielded. Before now there were no reliable, standardized lab procedures for quickly and easily extracting and measuring the latex yield from guayule branches. The procedures that ARS scientists in Arizona and California developed are patterned after those likely to be used in large-scale commercial production. The techniques obtain at least 90 percent of the latex from samples ground twice at 1 minute per grind, and at least 99 percent from four grinds.
Breeders can use the techniques to screen for the highest-yielding guayule plants.
And tomorrow's guayule growers can use them to determine the best methods for growing and storing the shrubs so they'll yield the largest amounts of high-quality latex. The artificial diet, designed by ARS researchers, comes at a time of growing concern that the beetle may soon resist standard insecticides like Admire. To find a suitable replacement or test a biological alternative like parasitic wasps, scientists need large numbers of the beetles. This means rearing them in the lab on a steady supply of potato plants. Originally, the beetle diet included potato leaf powder, as well as oats and other ingredients.