Euphorbia tirucalli
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| Euphorbia tirucalli |
Euphorbia tirucalli, pencil tree, or milk bush is a shrub that grows in semi-arid tropical climates. Milk bush produces a poisonous latex which can, with little effort, be converted to the equivalent of gasoline. This led chemist Melvin Calvin to propose the exploitation of milk bush for producing oil. This usage is particularly appealing because of the ability of milk bush to grow on land that is not suitable for most other crops. Calvin estimated that 10 to 50 barrels of oil per acre was achievable.
Milk bush also has uses in traditional medicine in many cultures. It has been used to treat cancers, excrescences, tumors, and warts in such diverse places as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malabar and Malaysia. It has also been used as an application for asthma, cough, earache, neuralgia, rheumatism, toothache, and warts in India. [2]. There is some interest in milk bush as a cancer treatment.
In the 1980s the Brazilian national petroleum company - Petrobras - began experiments based on the ideas that Calvin put forth.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Haevermans (2004). Euphorbia tirucalli. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- ^ Euphorbia tirucalli L. in Handbook of Energy Crops, James Duke
