This volume deals with the plants of South-East Asia that
produce exudates. Exudates are products generally obtained by tapping trees
(resins, gums, latexes). A small number of products like natural rubber and
pine resin are economically very important. It is hardly known that in South-East
Asia natural rubber is a major source of income for well over 1 million households.
Other exudates, however, could not compete with synthetic substitutes and have
lost importance or are not used at all anymore. Resins are used in paints and
varnishes, they yield essential oils and are transformed chemically into all
sorts of products. Latexes yield natural rubber, used for its elasticity, and
gutta-percha, a non-elastic product used for its thermo-plasticity. The former,
current and potential use of plant exudates is discussed and may serve to revitalise
production systems which include exudate-producing plants. In addition to the
botany, ecology and management, the different tapping techniques are described
in detail and put in perspective in the introductory chapter. In 15 papers,
species are described extensively, including the ones yielding copal, pine resin,
damar, elemi, benzoin, gurjun balsam, sepetir wood oil, jelutong, natural rubber,
and gutta-percha. About 40 minor species producing exudates are treated briefly.