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How to Stabilize Natural Latex

Natural latex comes from the sap of rubber tree plants. When you collect the sap from these plants, it is quickly attacked by bacteria. In the presence of an oxygen environment, the sap becomes rancid and is of no use. To eliminate the spoilage by bacterial action, add ammonia to the sap. The pH of the sap after the addition of ammonia is pH 11 or 12. At these high pH levels the bacteria cannot survive, stabilizing the sap containing the latex until you transport it to a processing plant.

Things You'll Need

Rubber tree sap
Ammonium hydroxide
Beaker
Dropper
pH test strips

Instructions

- 1
  Tap the rubber tree plant to collect the sap. It takes several hours for the sap to collect in the vessel used for collection. While the proteins that are naturally occurring in the sap provide a small level of stabilization, you must add a small amount of ammonium hydroxide to raise the pH to a point that inhibits bacterial action.
- 2
  Add enough ammonium hydroxide to provide a final concentration of approximately three parts ammonium hydroxide to 166.7 parts wet latex. The sap collected is approximately 30 percent latex, 65 percent water and 5 percent natural protein, fatty acids and impurities. After collection and centrifuging to separate the solids, the latex concentration increases to between 30 and 60 percent.
- 3
  Collect the latex-laden sap from the rubber tree plants at the tanker facility to be loaded into tanker trucks for transport to the processing plant. Check the pH of the tanker truckload of sap to ensure the pH is above 11 to prevent spoilage.

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