The magnificent plant of Euphorbia Tirucalli, most commonly known as the pencil plant, has a great potential. It naturally produces a poisonous latex...COOL right? Well that isn't the interesting part yet. This latex can be genetically engineered into none other than the very petrolium that the world is so dependent on. This is an amazing discovery right?? Well unfortunately it is little research being done on the topic. The great Melvin Calvin (may he RIP) was researching this topic and predicted that this plant is capable of 10-50 barrels of petrolium per acre. The nature of the plant only allows it to grow in desert like temperatures, and we have plenty of deserts here in America. I don't understand why this project is not being persued for further success in finding another sorce of oil, but this plant has amazing potential and can most deffinitely relieve the world of the whole oil dependency issue.
Euphorbia are found all over the world in most adverse climates. They produce hydrocarbons which can be converted into biofuel and petroleum products by hydrocracking i.e. breaking the triterpnoid ring and adding hydrogen bonds. However the extraction process is not perfect which leads to solvent losses. Moreover we have developed agrotechnology of this plant and local latex yielding plants of semi arid regions and we are pioneer in developing technologies for the same through our parent organisation