FRACTIONATION OF HEVEA BRASILIENSIS LATEX BY CENTRIFUGATION: (i) A COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE BIOCHEMICALCOMPOSITION OF THE 4 CENTRIFUGATION FRACTIONS

B i o c hemical components naturally occurring in Hevea latex are known to impact both superior and inferior properties of natural rubber (NR) but the mechanisms are still not well elucidated up to now. Thus, we established a systematic study to identify and locate the main biochemical components of latex that might drive NR quality inconsistency and dynamic structuration. Fresh latex from RRIM600 and PB235 clones were fractionated into 4 fractions, including  cream,  skim,  C-serum  and  lutoids,  through  successive  centrifugation  steps performed at various accelerations (g). The fractions  were further analyzed  to provide a comprehensive description of the biochemical composition in comparison with original whole latex. Comparison on a dry weight basis showed that skim was twice more concentrated in lipids and proteins than cream. For non-rubber fractions, lutoid was the richest in lipids, protein and minerals (mainly K and Mg). Similarly, serum also contained high protein and mineral content but no lipids.  Nevertheless,  when considering the mass balance of each fraction in order to identify the main location of each analyte, the obtained picture  was different. Qualitatively, it was noticed that the profiles of biochemical component of fractions were not uniform and dissimilar to that of the original latex. This information is essential to further study the quantitative impact of each component on NR structure and properties . Keywords: b i o c h e mical components , f r a c t i o nation , h e ve a latex , n o n-isoprene component