I'm a volunteer consultant for two NGOs, both of which have an abundance of this type of verbena. Aside from its use as a medicinal plant, I'm looking for ways to exploit it, as currently it is burned and wasted. Thanks!
The poor people in India used this plant as biofuel. but not as compost and fertilizer.
Around 1984, I worked on ways of using forest debris and orchard clippings as a sustainable fuel source using materials available at the village level. We found that dried lantana stalks had the highest amount of carbon (around 50%, if I remember correctly), compared with pine needles and other sources. We powdered this charcoal and mixed it with clay, made bricquettes which burnt very well, were smokeless and odourless. Certainly, charring and converting the coal powder to charcoal briquettes is an excellent way of exploiting lantana.
@Peter Smetacek: ”Around 1984, I worked on ways of using forest debris and orchard clippings as a sustainable fuel source using materials available at the village level.”
and nothing about Pistia?
P.S. In the same decade, this aquatic plant was very ”popular” in our country - as a solution for solving (at least, in principle) all problems related to water-pollution.
Zsolt, I worked in the Himalaya, where aquatic plants are not very common, nor is water pollution an issue! :)
@Peter Smetacek: ”I worked in the Himalaya"
hehe... that was a good one!
OK, I did not know this (kind of) detail.
P.S. just for my general knowledge: how many lepidopterologists are at the center?
My apologies to Denise, for going off the topic. Zsolt, at the moment only one, but another will be joining in June and then we shall see where it goes. It was only registered in October 2013, so now we can accept funds. Before that, it was unregistered, so did not have recognition from government and funding agencies. As you know, funds and staff go together...
I agree with Wei Ren that Lantana contain certain chemicals lantadene A,lantadene B,lantanolic acid ,lantic acid,salicylic acid and others which does now allow other plants to grow at the vicinity. so Lantanana is spreading very fast including at the foot hills of the Himalya.
Thanks to all of you! Peter, don't worry about going off topic as all info can be useful! There is a tremendous overgrowth of Lantana in the area of Corbett tiger reserve and it is choking the natural growth of the forest. Due to bureaucratic nonsense (same thing, no?), I don't know if it can be collected, but certainly an initiative should be taken to try and collect and then make use of it for biofuel. Any more comments/info will be greatly appreciated.
Denise, we can talk to the concerned authorities about the lantana problem. I know that they are also in despair about it. If it can be converted to charcoal and the product marketed, then that would be a good solution to the whole problem.
There is some ongoing work looking into the properties of Lantana camara as a pesticidal plant for pre- or post-harvest protection of crops such as cereals - see publications such as http://www.ajol.info/index.php/jfta/article/view/19323 JO Ogendo, AL Deng, SR Belmain, DJ Walker, AAO Musandu (2004) Effect of Insecticidal Plant Materials, Lantana camara L. and Tephrosia vogelii Hook, on the Quality Parameters of Stored Maize Grains. J Food Tech Africa and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022474X00000114 H Boudaa, LA Tapondjoua, DA Fontemb, MYD Gumedzoec (2001) Effect of essential oils from leaves of Ageratum conyzoides, Lantana camara and Chromolaena odorata on the mortality of Sitophilus zeamais (Coleoptera, Curculionidae). J Stored Product Res. As with a lot of pesticidal plants, more research is needed into efficacy, consistency, optimisation, doses, etc. but the potential is there.
According to GB Pant University Pantnagar, its a useful weed which is used to enhance the soil fertility.
there are too many technologies developed by FRI Dehradun to make furniture by this weed
Of course. Lantana camara, a wild and poisonous invasive weed has been found to be a low cost feedstock for bioethanol production through fermentation of biomass with yeast. Do check these links below
http://www.educus.com/Journals/ResultDetailPrintFormat.aspx?PMID=20584600&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Some research on its fuel properties and combustion characteristics have also been conducted
http://cabdirect.org/abstracts/20093296382.html
A lot has been said about this plant. Some one has to search ChemicalAabstract (CAS) database for industrial/applied uses of this plant as well as patent covering this plant.
I should be more specific about the biofuel aspect of this project. I ant to use it to produce 'biobricks' for heating and for cooking. The information you have all sent so far, however, is still extremely useful as I am learning about the chemical properties of Lantana. Ideally, I would like to see if there is an efficient (time & energy) way to reduce the toxic quality of it to extract fodder from it.
Then, the big challenge is surpassing the bureaucracy of the forest department at Corbett ntl park to see if people can go in to remove it ! That will be a near impossibility, however, the buffer zones are suffering greatly and could suffice as a source of Lantana and would certainly encourage forest regeneration. Thanks again to everyone. More ideas welcome! 8-)
Dear Denise
Access: World Biodiversity Information Network - CONABIO - Mexico
This site may be useful for you
Hope you like this review.
If you can compress shade dried leaves, stem in to pallets, then these pallets can be used for insect repellent, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, You can make multipurpose floor cleaner also from this plant. Medicinal properties can be absorbed through your feet.
Ethanol production reference from ncbi:
Bioethanol production from Lantana camara (red sage): Pretreatment, saccharification and fermentation.
Kuhad RC1, Gupta R, Khasa YP, Singh A.
Author information
Abstract
Lantanacamara contains 61.1% (w/w) holocellulose and can serve as a low-cost feedstock for bioethanol production. Acid hydrolysis (3.0%, v/v H(2)SO(4), 120 degrees C for 45 min) of L. camara produced 187.14 mg/g total sugars along with fermentation inhibitors such as phenolics (8.2mg/g), furfurals (5.1mg/g) and hydroxy methyl furfurals (6.7 mg/g). Sequential application of overliming (pH 10.0) and activated charcoal (1.5%, w/v) adsorption was used to remove these toxic compounds from the acid hydrolysate. The acid-pretreated biomass of L. camara was further delignified through combined pretreatment of sodium sulphite (5.0% w/v) and sodium chlorite (3.0% w/v), which resulted in about 87.2% lignin removal. The enzymatic hydrolysis of delignified cellulosic substrate showed 80.0% saccharification after 28 h incubation at 50 degrees C and pH 5.0. Fermentation of acid and enzymatic hydrolysates with Pichiastipitis and Saccharomycescerevisiae gave rise to 5.16 and 17.7 g/L of ethanol with corresponding yields of 0.32 and 0.48 g/g after 24 and 16 h, respectively.
Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PMID: 20584600 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Bioresour Technol. 2010 Nov;101(21):8348-54. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2010.06.043. Epub 2010 Jul 2.
I saw this msg from you in my msgs function of the home paqge
But I could not read it full.
"Dear Professor Sharma, Thank you so much for taking the time to send me that information. I have .............." (What is the rest of the msg?).
RG, these days, is not working properly after their modifications/upgrades.
Any ways
You are welcome. Further information, if any you need, please mail me
WBW
-rks
Let me share some observations. Goats can get used to feed on Lantana camara (Cabo verde); wood pellets produced from invasive shrubs (but not Lantana) in Central Namibia have been successfully marketed.
Lantana camara L. is an invasive species but has a great potential in medicinal industry. It possess Antibacterial, Antifungal, Antilarvicidal and much more..
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Botany