Eucommia and its uses

Eucommia is a small tree native to China.It belongs to the monotype Eucommiaceae.It is considered vulnerable in the wild, but is widely cultivated in China for its bark and is highly valued in herbal medicine such as Chinese medicine.

Descriptions

Eucommia grows to about 15 m tall.Leaves deciduous, alternately arranged, simple ovate, with acuminate tips, 8-16 cm long, with serrate margins.If a leaf is torn, the latex bundles that ooze from the veins solidify into rubber and hold the two parts of the leaf together.It blooms from March to May. The flowers are inconspicuous, small and green; the fruit from June to November is a seeded samara, very similar in appearance to the elm samara, 2-3 cm long and 1-2 cm wide.

Taxonomy  

E. ulmoides is the only extant species of Eucommia genus.Eucommia ulmoides is the only genus of Eucommiaceae and was previously considered a separate order, Eucommia ulmoides.It is also sometimes called "Gutah tree" or "Chinese rubber tree," but is not related to either the true gutta-percha of Southeast Asia or the South American rubber tree.

Distributions

The tree is also occasionally planted in botanical and other gardens in Europe, North America and elsewhere, where it has gained much attention as the only hardy (at least -30 °C) rubber-producing tree.Fossils of other Eucommia species have been found in lignite deposits that were widespread in central Europe and North America between 10 and 35 million years ago, suggesting that the genus had a much wider range in the past.

Uses

It is one of the 50 essential herbs used in Chinese herbalism and is known as dùzhòng (Chinese: Eucommia).Due to the low production and high demand for natural rubber in China, a unique process was developed to manufacture elastic materials using Eucommia gum (EUG) as a substitute for natural rubber products.Unlike which is used to produce natural rubber, EUG is the polymer trans-1,4-polyisoprene.Therefore, materials made from EUG may exhibit different properties than natural rubber, such as higher elasticity, lower thermoplastic temperature, etc.