Arundo
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 Giant Reed (Arundo donax)
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Arundo is a genus of two or three species of stout, perennial grasses from the family Poaceae, native to the Mediterranean region east to India, China and Japan. They grow to 3-6 m tall, occasionally to 10 m, with leaves 30-60 cm long and 3-6 cm broad.
- Species
- Arundo donax - Giant Reed, Spanish Cane (south and east Mediterranean, to India; naturalised in many additional areas)
- Arundo pliniana - Pliny's Reed (Mediterranean Europe)
It has been suggested that Arundo donax is rich in tryptamine {[1]}. Almost all the published reports have located the alkaloids in the flower or the roots of the reed {[2]}. The blossoms have dimethyltryptamine and the 5-methoxylated N-demethylated analogue, 5-MeO-NMT. The roots contain the mentioned active tryptamines, but also contain bufotenine. The quaternary methylated salt of DMT is found in the blossoms, and bufotenidine and the cyclic dehydrobufotenidine are in the roots. Arundo donax is a giant perennial grass that produces more biomass per acre than any other known biomass plant apart from bamboo. Arundo donax has long been recognized as important non-wood industrial biomass-producing plants that can be grown on a wide variety of soil types and climatic conditions. Arundo donax reaches maturity (15 to 25 feet) in about a year, can be harvested, depending on climate, once to three times annually.
Arundo produces an average of 25 tons of high quality fiber per acre twice annually. One significant use is in production of chips for the manufacture of high-grade biofuel pellets or dried chips. Highly significant also is the importance of a crop with a greater than 20 to 25 year growing cycle without annual replanting, and the ability to exclude many costly fertilizers and weed killers which are also an environmental concern, that will return agriculture to a more profitable basis than many crops.
Arundo is an ideal biofuel (8000 BTU’s/lb) that produces methanol from gas diffusion as a byproduct in manufacturing cellulose. The option to gasify this product is to produce independently a valuable energy product. It is possible to use new high efficiency gasification systems to convert Arundo into a multitude of different energy sources, such as syngas, standard steam turbine electrical generation, ethanol and bio-diesel.
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