Latex

Calotropis procera is a herbaceous phanerogam that produces latex. When a leaf is broken, latex oozes from the damaged tissue.

Latex is an emulsion of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.

In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants. It is a complex emulsion that coagulates on exposure to air, consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins, and gums. It is usually exuded after tissue injury. In most plants, latex is white, but some have yellow, orange, or scarlet latex. Latex is not to be confused with plant sap; it is a distinct substance, separately produced, and with different functions.

The word latex is also used to refer to natural latex rubber, particularly non-vulcanized rubber. Such is the case in products like latex gloves, latex condoms and latex clothing.

Depedencies

• Water
• Latex
  • Rubber

See also

• Pine
• Plastic

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Latex, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).